A  NEW  NATION 


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EXPLORERS  and  SETTLERS 

THE  COLONISTS  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

A  NEW  NATION 

THE  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT 

THE  CIVIL  WAR 

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A  NEW  NATION 


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PRINTED   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES    OE   AMERICA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

WASHINGTON  AT  MOUNT  VERNON  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Constance  C.  Harrison  3 
THE  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON 

Clarence  W.  Bowen  .  .  .  18 

How  WE  BOUGHT  LOUISIANA  .  Helen  L.  Coffin 25 

THE  LAST  CONQUISTADOR  .  .  .  E.  S.  Brooks 30 

CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  (1812)  .  .  President  James  Madison  .  .  43 
LAURELS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  TAR  IN  1812 

Edgar  S.  Mac  lay 47 

THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS  .  Theodore  Roosevelt  ....  62 

THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER 68 

ROBBERS  OF  THE  SEAS  ....  Ernest  Ingersoll 72 

OLD  GEORGETOWN John  W.  Palmer 86 

ROBERT  FULTON  AND  THE  CLERMONT 

Alice  Crary  Sutcliffe  ....  95 
THE  MISSIONS  OF  ALTA  CALIFORNIA 

John  T.  Doyle 106 

PIONEER  SPANISH  FAMILIES  IN  CALIFORNIA 

Charles  H.  Shinn 122 

OSCEOLA Major-General  0.  O.  Howard  .  130 

THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

John  B.  McMaster  ....  138 
WEBSTER  AS  THE  DEFENDER  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

John  B.  McMaster  .  .  .  .148 

OLD  NEW  YORK  AND  ITS  BUILDING  Richard  G.  White 160 

THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN  .  .  Helen  Nicolay 166 

MY  ESCAPE  FROM  SLAVERY  .  .  Frederick  Douglass  .  .  .  .181 

vii 


R54.089 


viii  Contents 

PAGE 

THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES  .    Frederick  T.  Hill 186 

A  DOUGLAS  ARGUMENT  ....     Stephen  A.  Douglas  ....   199 

THE  AUTHOR  OF  "  UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN  " 

Richard  Burton 203 


Acknowledgment  is  made  of  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Company  for 
permission  to  use  the  poem  "  Oh,  Mother  of  a  Mighty  Race." 


A  NEW  NATION 


"  OH,  MOTHER  OF  A  MIGHTY  RACE  " 

Oh,  mother  of  a  mighty  race, 
Yet  lovely  in  thy  youthful  grace  ! 
The  elder  dames,  thy  haughty  peers, 
Admire  and  hate  thy  blooming  years. 

With  words  of  shame 
And  taunts  of  scorn  they  join  thy  name. 

For  on  thy  cheeks  the  glow  is  spread 
That  tints  thy  morning  hills  with  red ; 
Thy  step  —  the  wild  deer's  rustling  feet 
Within  thy  woods  are  not  more  fleet ; 

Thy  hopeful  eye 
Is  bright  as  thine  own  sunny  sky. 

Ay,  let  them  rail  —  those  haughty  ones, 
While  safe  thou  dwellest  with  thy  sons. 
They  do  not  know  how  loved  thou  art, 
How  many  a  fond  and  fearless  heart 

Would  rise  to  throw 
Its  life  between  thee  and  the  foe. 

Oh,  fair  young  mother  !  on  thy  brow 
Shall  sit  a  nobler  grace  than  now. 
Deep  in  the  brightness  of  the  skies 
The  thronging  years  in  glory  rise, 

And,  as  they  fleet, 
Drop  strength  and  riches  at  thy  feet. 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 


From   the   Poems    of    William    Cullen    Bryant,    by    courtesy    of    D.    Appleton    and 
Company. 


A   NEW   NATION 


WASHINGTON  AT  MOUNT  VERNON  AFTER 
THE  REVOLUTION 

BY  CONSTANCE  GARY  HARRISON 

There  are  two  seasons  of  the  year  when  the  hilly  shores 
of  the  Lower  Potomac  River  become  an  earthly  paradise, 
wherein,  till  summer  heats  return  to  coax  him  from  his  lair, 
the  serpent  of  malaria  lies  torpid  and  restrained  from  active 
demonstration.  One  of  them  is  the  late  autumn/  after  frost 
has  set  the  woods  afire  and  filled  the  pale  red  globes  of  the 
tricksy  persimmon  with  luscious  sweetness.  Then  the 
sleepy  sun  lingers  upon  the  landscape,  loath  to  leave,  and 
life  is  a  delight.  The  other  "  time  of  joyance  "  is  in  early 
spring,  when  the  swelling  slopes  on  each  side  the  broad 
silver  river  are  first  reclad  in  verdure.  Who,  that  has  ever 
known  it,  can  forget  the  jubilee  of  Nature  in  Virginia's 
woods  in  April  —  the  self  assertion  of  every  growing  thing 
in  whose  green  veins  the  sap  is  running;  the  riotous  blos 
soming  of  trees  and  shrubs  close  of  kin  to  Virginia's  soil, 
and  nurtured  accordingly  by  the  Virginian  climate ;  the 
singing  of  innumerable  birds? 

Viewed  from  the  high  ground  around  Mount  Vernon, 
and  from  the  openings  in  the  wood-road  along  which,  just 
a  century  ago,  Washington  was  wont  to  take  his  daily 
gallops,  the  scene  that  met  his  eyes  wras  as  fair  as  man  could 
ask  to  look  upon.  Many  acres  of  the  wide,  rolling  country 

3 


A  New  Nation 


The  Old  Entrance  to  Mount  Vernon. 


were  his  own,  and 
for  years  had  known 
his  care.  Hither, 
while  in  camp  or 
afield,  throughout 
the  turmoil  of  war, 
his  fancy  had  con 
tinually  turned.  All 
the  poetry  of  his 
self-contained  nature 
went  out  to  these  fa 
miliar  haunts.  None 
of  the  more  grandi 
ose  scenery  in  West 
ern  solitudes,  nothing 
he  had  seen  while  in  command  of  the  army,  had  dis 
turbed  his  dream  of  Mount  Vernon  sitting  like  a  queen 
enthroned  on  grassy  hilltops,  her  feet  laved  by  the  beautiful 
Potomac.  Good  to  look  at  still  when  in  the  saddle  was  he 
whom  Lafayette  thus  described,  long  after  the  brave 
knight  was  dust :  "  Our  beloved  chief,  mounted  on  a  splen 
did  charger,  rode  along  the  ranks  at  Monmouth  amid  the 
shouts  of  the  soldiers,  and  I  thought  I  had  never  seen  so 
superb  a  man."  Jefferson,  too,  spoke  of  him  in  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Walter  Jones,  as  "  the  best  horseman  of  his  age,  and  the 
most  graceful  figure  that  could  be  seen  on  horseback." 

Although  somewhat  faded  was  the  huntsman's  bravery 
of  blue  and  scarlet  worn  in  the  gala-days  of  yore,  the  man 
inside  of  it  sat  with  the  old  ease  upon  his  fiery  "  Blue-skin  " 
-  Will  Lee,  on  "  Chinkling,"  closely  following.  These 
two  rode  straight  forward,  over  brake  and  brier,  from  sun 
rise,  when  the  gray  fox  of  Virginia  was  unkenneled,  till  — 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon 


Main  hall  as  it  is  to-day. 


no  matter  what  hour 
—  the  fate  of  her  lady 
ship  Avas  settled  and  her 
followers  drew  rein  be 
fore  one  house  or  the 
other  of  their  belong 
ings,  to  seek  pot-luck. 
Custis  says  that  Wash 
ington  required  of  a 
horse  "  but  one  good 
quality,  and  that  was 
to  go  along.  He  ridiculed  the  idea  that  he  could  be  un 
horsed,  provided  the  animal  kept  on  his  legs." 

Of  Washington's  neighbors,  one  of  the  most  important, 
still  living  within  easy  reach  of  Mount  Vernon,  was  George 
Mason  of  Gunston  Hall,  a  patriot  of  the  finest  type,  the 
author  of  that  noble  paper,  "  The  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights," 
and  who  in  the  intervals  of  distinguished  service  in  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  returned  to  his  home  on  the  Potomac. 
To  this  old  manor-house  of  the  Masons,  built  in  1739,  of 
Scotch  brick  brought  to  the  colony  as  ballast  in  empty 
tobacco-ships,  and  richly  ornamented  with  wood  carvings, 

the  Washington  fam 
ily  was  accustomed  to 
resort  for  tea-drinkings 
and  "  dining-days,"  re 
turned  in  kind  before 
the  week  was  out. 

To  the  lover  of  old 
times  and  houses  it  may 
be  of  interest  to  know 

that  Gunston  Hall  still 
Fireplace  in  the  old  kitchen. 


A  New  Nation 


stands,  although  no  longer  in  possession  of  the  Mason  fam 
ily.  The  ancient  tobacco  fields  that  surround  it  are  now 
blossoming  with  the  April  snow  of  apple,  peach,  and  pear 
treec ;  and  some  of  the  Potomac  boats  stop  at  Gunston  Land 
ing,  below  Alexandria,  to  take  on  to  Washington  the  excel 
lent  milk,  cream,  and  poultry  for  which  Fairfax  County 
farmers  are  renowned.  Indeed,  this  business  is  a  survival 
of  the  days  when  Washington  set  his  neighbors  a  good 
example  by  running  a  market  cart  between  Mount  Vernon 
and  the  town.  "  These  old  Alexandrians,"  says  Parson 
Weems,  "  filled  their  coach-houses  with  gilt  carriages  and 
their  dining-rooms  with  gilt  glasses,  and  then  sat  down  to 
a  dinner  of  salt  meat  and  johnny-cake,"  because  nobody  had 
been  found  to  furnish  supplies  for  the  market. 

Good  reason  had  M.  Brissot  de  Warville,  the  traveler  and 
author  (the  "  brisk  little  Frenchman  "  who  became  chief  of 
the  Girondists  and  died  by  the  guillotine  in  1793),  to  cry 
out  in  astonishment  at  the  general's  success  in  farming,  when 
he  went  the  rounds  of  Mount  Vernon  in  the  autumn  of  1788, 
The  estates  were  then  at  the  highest  pitch  of  improvement 
they  ever  attained,  crops  of  wheat,  tobacco,  corn,  barley,  and 

buckwheat  "  burdening 
the  ground."  What 
excited  the  French 
man's  chief  surprise 
was  that  every  barn 
and  cabin,  grove  and 
clearing,  field  and  or 
chard,  passed  daily  be 
neath  the  eye  of  the 
master.  All  the  busy 
life  of  the  negro  world 


Music  room. 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon 


Banquet  hall  r< 


was  regulated  by  his 
personal  directions  to 
overseers  and  bailiff. 
No  item  was  too  insig 
nificant  to  bring  before 
his  notice. 

In  the  summer  of 
1788  we  find  Washing 
ton  endeavoring  to  cap 
ture  or  buy  a  healthy 
family  of  opossums  to 
export  alive  to  his  friend  Sir  Edward  Newenham  ("  exotic 
animals"  these  must  have  proved  to  the  English  climate)  ; 
George  Fairfax  proposes  to  send  him  English  deer. 
Washington's  care  of  his  horses  is  too  well  known  to  need 
mention  here.  One  ceremony  of  his  daily  round  —  for,  rain 
or  shine,  he  made  the  circuit  of  his  farms,  between  twelve 
and  fifteen  miles  —  was,  in  season,  never  omitted  by  the 
chief.  It  was  to  lean  over  the  fence  around  the  field  wrherein 
a  tall  old  sorrel  horse,  with  white  face  and  legs,  was  graz 
ing  luxuriously  in  the  richest  grass  and  clover  Mount  Vernon 
could  afford.  At  the  sight  of  him  the  old  steed  would  prick 
up  his  ears  and  run  neighing  to  arch  his  neck  beneath  his 
master's  hand.  This  was  "  Nelson,"  the  war-horse,  upon 
whose  back,  at  Yorktown,  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
American  armies  had  received  the  surrender  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis.  The  war  ended,  "  Nelson's  "  work  was  over. 
Turned  out  to  graze  in  summer,  in  winter  carefully  groomed 
and  stabled,  he  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  but  by  his  master's 
strict  command,  was  never  again  allowed  to  feel  the  burden 
of  a  saddle. 

These  stories  are  familiar  enough  to  dwellers  in  and  about 


8  A  New  Nation 

Alexandria,  who,  as  the  common  saying  goes,  were  "  brought 
up  on  "  General  Washington.  My  own  early  views  of  the 
great  man  and  his  family  were  tinged  with  familiarity 
through  hearing  them  discussed  across  the  table  as  if  they 
still  lived  within  driving  distance.  Some  of  the  features  of 
Mount  Vernon  life  here  revived  were  depicted  by  my  grand 
mother  and  great-aunts,  whose  mother,  Mrs.  Herbert  of 
Alexandria,  was  often  asked,  after  the  liberal  fashion  of 
the  State,  to  fetch  a  coach-load  of  her  offspring  for  a  "  stay 
ing  visit  "  to  the  Washingtons. 

In  the  happy  years  when  Washington  had  settled  down,  as 
he  believed  and  hoped,  "  to  pass  an  unclouded  evening  after 
the  stormy  day  of  life,"  the  house  was  greatly  altered.  Re 
stored  and  extended,  Mount  Vernon  was  filled  with  trophies 
and  souvenirs  of  its  owner's  glory.  Even  the  grand  mantel 
piece  of  Italian  marble  in  the  chief  parlor  had  been  sent  by 
an  admirer  of  the  general  in  London,  together  with  two  vases 
of  old  blue  Indian  porcelain.  But  the  habits  of  his  family 
were  unchanged,  remaining  always  on  the  unostentatious 
old  Virginian  lines.  After  an  early  breakfast  Madam 
Washington,  a  stout,  kindly  dame,  wearing  in  winter  home 
spun,  in  summer  a  gown  of  crisp  white  dimity,  went  to  her 
storeroom.  "  My  dear  old  grandfather  "  (the  late  G.  W.  P. 
Custis,  Esq.,  of  Arlington  House),  writes  Miss  Mildred  Lee 
"  used  to  tell  me,  when  I  ran  in  from  play  with  a  dirty  frock 
at  Arlington,  that  his  grandmamma,  Mrs.  Washington, 
wore  always  one  white  gown  a  week,  and  that  when  she 
took  it  off  it  was  as  spotless  as  the  day  she  put  it  on." 

A  mob-cap  covering  her  gray  hair,  and  key-basket  in  hand, 
the  wife  of  Washington  must  have  offered  a  pleasant  pic 
ture  of  the  days  when  housekeepers  were  not  ashamed  to 
weigh  their  own  supplies,  and  butchers'  books  and  lounging, 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  9 

grocers'  boys  were  not.  In  their  stead  were  seen  the  black 
cook  and  her  myrmidons,  smiling,  goggling,  courtesying, 
holding  their  wooden  pails  and  "  piggins  "  to  receive  the 
day's  allowance.  If  there  were  a  "  sugar  loaf  '"  to  crack,  a 
tall  glittering  monument  like  an  aiguille  of  the  Alps,  emer 
ging  stainless  from  its  dark-blue  wrapper,  it  was  the  mistress 
of  the  house  who  brought  her  strength  to  bear  on  it;  there 
were  "  whips  "  and  "  floating-islands  "  and  jellies  to  com 
pound  ;  and  to  "  tie  down  "  the  preserves  was  no  small  piece 
of  work. 

The  rites  of  the  storeroom  at  an  end,  it  was  Mrs.  Wash 
ington's  practice  to  retire  to  her  closet  for  the  exercises  of 
private  devotions.  Afterwards  the  house  was  opened  to 
visits  from  the  "  quarter."  Disputes  were  settled,  eggs  and 
chickens  bought  at  the  valuation  of  the  seller,  advice  and 
medicine  given  to  a  succession  of  grown-up  children  —  a 
family,  varying  in  hue  from  tawny  brown  to  the  black  of 
darkness  visible,  the  care  of  whose  health  and  welfare,  how 
ever  onerous,  was  accepted  as  naturally  by  generations  of 
Southern  housewives  as  was  the  responsibility  for  their  own 
flesh  and  blood. 

This  business  of  reception  went  on  intermittently  during 
the  morning  hours ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Madam 
Washington  sat  with  idle  hands  the  while.  Scattered  about 
the  room  were  black  women  engaged  in  work  that  must  be 
overlooked;  Flavia  cutting  out  innumerable  garments  of 
domestic  cotton  for  "  quarter  "  use,  Sylvia  at  her  seam, 
Myrtilla  at  her  wheel  —  not  to  mention  the  small  dark  crea 
tures  with  wool  betwigged,  perched  upon  crickets  round 
about  the  hearth,  learning  to  sew,  to  mend,  to  darn,  with 
"  ole  miss "  for  a  teacher.  During  the  late  war  Mrs. 
Washington's  boast  had  been  that  she  had  kept  as  many  as 


The  old  Family  Tomb  at  Mount  Vernon. 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  1 1 

sixteen  wheels  at  a  time  whirring  on  the  plantation.  A  fa 
vorite  gown  had  been  woven  by  her  maids,  of  cotton,  striped 
with  silk  procured  by  raveling  the  general's  discarded  stock 
ings,  and  enlivened  by  a  line  of  crimson  from  some  worn- 
out  chair-covers  of  satin  damask. 

Everybody  looked  forward  to  the  evening  when  the  gen 
eral  sat  with  them.  This  was  the  children's  hour,  when  by 
the  uncertain  twinkle  of  homemade  candles,  lighting  but 
dimly  the  great  saloon,  while  their  elders  turned  trumps 
around  the  card-table,  the  young  people  were  called  to  show 
their  steps,  to  strum  their  pieces,  to  sing  their  quavering  lit 
tle  songs.  The  curled  darling  of  the  house  was  "  Master  " 
Washington.  Lafayette,  during  his  last  visit  to  America, 
told  Mr.  G.  W.  P.  Custis  he  had  seen  him  first  on  the  portico 
at  Mount  Vernon  in  1784—  "  a  very  little  gentleman  with 
a  feather  in  his  hat,  holding  fast  to  one  finger  of  the  good 
general's  remarkable  hand,  which  (so  large  that  hand)  was 
all,  my  dear  sir,  you  could  well  do  at  the  time !  "  .  .  . 

I  do  not  purpose  to  enter  into  details  about  what  we  in  the 
South  call  "  family  company  "  at  Mount  Vernon.  As  well 
attempt  to  impose  upon  an  unoffending  public  a  table  of 
Virginian  genealogy.  Friends  may  come  and  go,  but  cousins 
go  on  forever  in  our  State.  Kinsmen  there  were  who  rode 
up  to  the  gate,  hallooed  for  grooms,  and  stabled  their  steeds 
with  unshaken  confidence  in  their  own  acceptability.  Second 
cousins  once  removed  unpacked  their  bandboxes  in  the 
square  chambers.  Pretty  Dandridges  and  Custises  and 
Washingtons  put  on  their  patches  before  the  high-swung 
mirrors.  Occasionally  was  seen  there  Mrs.  Fielding  Lewis, 
Washington's  "  Sister  Betty,"  a  lady  so  like  her  illustrious 
brother,  that  it  was  a  family  jest  to  throw  around  her  a  mill- 


12  A  New  Nation 

tary  cloak,  put  a  cocked  hat  on  her  head,  and  file  by  salut 
ing  her  as  "  general." 

During  these  years  of  quiet  many  minor  schemes  engaged 
Washington's  attention.  Through  Lafayette  he  promised 
her  Imperial  Majesty  to  secure  a  vocabulary  of  certain  Indian 
tribes  on  the  frontier,  but  besought  the  great  lady  to  have 
patience  with  the  time  consumed  in  getting  it.  On  Febru 
ary  8,  1787,  he  enclosed  to  R.  H.  Lee  the  plan  of  the 
Countess  of  Huntington  to  evangelize  the  Indians  of  the 

Western  territory,  a  vo 
luminous  manuscript,  sent 
through  Sir  James  Jay, 
which  Washington  apolo 
gizes  for  not  copying,  on 
the  ground  that  he  is  much 
;.  pressed  in  correspondence. 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  the 
good  countess  got  little 

Harpsichord  and  flute  in  the  Wash-  comfort  from  her  Indians, 

ington  home  at  Mount  Vernon. 

whatever  she  may  have  de 
rived  from  the  courtesy  of  Lee  and  Washington. 

Although  his  reading  was  chiefly  military  or  agricultural, 
Washington  dipped  now  and  then  into  belles-lettres.  The 
same  faithful  Dickey  Lee  to  whom  once  in  childish  round- 
hand  he  had  written,  "  I  am  going  to  get  a  new  whip-top 
and  you  may  see  and  whip  it  too,"  has  left  a  letter  wherein 
Washington  acknowledges  a  certain  "  packet,"  regretting 
that  his  "  want  of  knowledge  of  the  language  "  prevents 
him  from  forming  an  opinion  of  his  own  about  the  "  dra 
matic  performances "  of  "  Monsieur  Serviteur  le  Bar- 
bier." 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  13 

The  general's  charities  were  of  the  least  conspicuous,  yet 
most  judicious  character.  Careful  in  minute  expenditure, 
he  was  never  known  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  country  poor  — 
and  their  number  was  not  small  —  who  begged  of  him  an 
audience.  For  their  use  he  kept  a  granary  on  the  estate 
filled  with  corn,  and  a  boat  with  seine  moored  in  one  of  his 
best  herring-fisheries.  Governor  Johnson  cites  an  example 
of  his  secret  bounty  to  a  number  of  miserably  poor  moun 
taineers  in  the  neighborhood  of  one  of  the  "  Virginia 
Springs,"  to  whom  the 
baker  of  the  place  was 
ordered  to  supply  a  daily 
dole  of  bread,  without 
revealing  the  giver's 
name,  which  was  found 
out,  quite  by  chance,  to 
be  that  of  Washington. 
His  foundation  of  the  Washington's  Inkstand,  Candlestick, 
school  for  boys  in  Alex 
andria,  mentioned  in  this  will,  was  a  work  heartily  appreci 
ated  then,  and  even  now,  by  his  townspeople. 

No  sketch  of  Washington's  home  life  should  omit  men 
tion  of  his  servants.  Chief  among  these,  dean  of  the  corps 
in  point  of  dignity  and  right  of  precedence,  was  Bishop,  the 
English  soldier  who  had  been  Braddock's  body-servant  at 
the  fatal  Monongahela,  and  was  by  him  dying,  commended 
to  the  care  of  Washington.  Bishop  literally  grew  gray  in 
the  service  of  Mount  Vernon,  marrying  there,  and  living  in 
a  house  on  the  estate  till  his  death  at  the  age  of  eighty-odd 
years.  As  he  got  on  in  life  the  ex-militaire  became  some 
thing  whimsical ;  more  than  once  Washington  fell  upon  the 
too  transparent  device  of  bidding  him  seek  elsewhere  for 


A  New  Nation 


a  master  if  not  satisfied  with  him.  But  the  old  fox  held 
his  own;  and  to  his  retreat  choice  bits  continued  to  he  sent 
from  the  house-table,  while  all  visitors  made  a  point  of 
paying  their  respects  to  him. 

Billy,  or  Will,  Lee,  the  mulatto  ex-huntsman  of  the  Fair 
fax  County  chase,  pompous  and  alert,  stood  behind  his 
master's  chair  at  meals.  Off  duty,  it  was  his  pride,  espe 
cially  with  military  visitors,  to  assume  an  easy  air  of  in 
timacy  with  the  executive 
proceedings  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  War. 

Daddy  Jack,  the  fisher 
man,  was  a  characteristic 
feature  of  a  Virginian 
plantation.  He  was  an 
aged  negro,  as  gray  of  tint 
and  as  dry  in  texture  as 
the  lichen  on  a  dead  tree. 
His  claim  to  be  "  Mos'  a 
hund'ed,  chile,"  was  ac 
cepted  without  question. 
Jack  told  many  weird 
stories  of  his  debut  in  life  as  the  son  of  an  African  king, 
with  chapters  of  fire  and  bloodshed  in  which  his  father's 
fall  before  the  sword  and  his  own  capture  and  forced  voy 
age  to  America  were  touched  with  lurid  tints. 

Old  Tom  Davis,  weather-beaten  and  hearty,  carrying  his 
gun  and  pouch,  his  body  wrapped  with  strings  of  game,  his 
dogs  at  heel,  was  long  a  familiar  spectacle  of  the  woods  on 
the  estate. 

"  Black  Gary,"  a  negro,  freed  by  the  terms  of  Washing 
ton's  will,  lived  to  the  reputed  age  of  a  hundred  and  fourteen 


Washington's  Lamp,  now  in  the  Na 
tional  Museum. 


Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  15 


Washington's  Tomb. 


years  in  the  city  of 
Washington.  This  old 
fellow's  stock  in  trade 
was,  naturally,  his  past 
connection  with  the 
family  at  Mount  Ver 
non.  He  levied  trib 
ute  on  the  strength  of 
it,  exacting  from  his 
own  race  the  deference 
paid  to  a  king  in  exile. 

The  chief's  admirable  care  of  his  servants  is  fully  shown 
by  his  will  and  other  writings.  No  master  could  have  been 
more  provident  for  their  future,  more  considerate  of  their 
daily  wants. 

To  stop  and  parley  with  his  favorite  henchman  formed 
one  of  the  pleasures  of  his  daily  ride.  The  sovereign  of  a 
system  genuinely  feudal  was  the  master  of  one  of  those  great 
eighteenth-century  plantations  in  Virginia.  Happy  he  who, 
ike  Washington,  could  induce  the  intolerable  curse  of  slavery 
to  wear  the  semblance  of  a  blessing. 

Thus,  surrounded  by  friends  who  loved  them  and  depend 
ents  whose  lives  they 
continually  brightened, 
it  made  little  difference 
to  sober  people  in  the 
afternoon  of  life,  like 
the  general  and  his 
wife,  that  society  about 
their  home  had  lost 
something  of  pre-revo- 
View  of  the  Potomac.  lutionary  sparkle.  Al- 


16  A  New  Nation 

ready  the  ebb-tide  of  Virginia's  glory  had  set  in,  and  the 
class  inspired  by  Jefferson,  whom  the  ladies  of  Mount  Ver- 
non  scrupled  not  to  call  "  those  filthy  Democrats,"  had  be 
gun  their  work  of  image-breaking  in  the  stronghold  of  colo 
nial  aristocracy.  Such  as  it  was,  Washington's  State  was 
knit  into  the  fibers  of  his  heart. 

So  her  sons  and  daughters  look  tenderly  upon  Virginia 
wrapping  around  her  poverty  and  sorrow  the  tattered  rem 
nants  of  a  glorious  past ;  and  in  her  behalf  a  noble  voice  has 
spoken  to  all  Americans  in  these  words : 

Virginia  gave  us  this  imperial  man, 

Cast  in  the  massive  mould 

Of  those  high-statured  ages  old 

Which  into  grander  forms  our  mortal  metal  ran ;  . 

She  gave  us  this  unblemished  gentleman. 

What  shall  we  give  her  back  but  love  and  praise, 

As  in  the  dear  old  unestranged  days 

Before  the  inevitable  wrong  began? 

Mother  of  States  and  undiminished  men, 

Thou  gavest  us  a  country,  giving  him. 


Washington  taking  the  oath  as  President. 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON 
BY  CLARENCE  WINTHROP  BOWEN 

The  requisite  number  of  States  hav 
ing  adopted  the  Constitution,  Congress 
reported  an  act  for  putting  the  new 
government  into  operation. 

At  sunset  on  the  evening  of  March  3, 
1789,  the  old  Confederation  was  fired 
out  by  thirteen  guns  from  the  fort  op- 
From  a  penny  of  1791.  posite  Bowling  Green  in  New  York, 

and  on  Wednesday,  the  4th,  the  new  era  was  ushered  in  by 
the  firing  of  eleven  guns  in  honor  of  the  eleven  States  that 
had  then  adopted  the  Constitution.  (Rhode  Island  and 
North  Carolina  had  not.) 

The  new  Constitution  was  considered  a  "  Sheet  anchor  of 
Commerce  and  prop  of  Freedom,"  and  it  was  thought  that 
Congress  would  again  thrive,  the  farmer  meet  immediately 
a  ready  market  for  his  produce,  manufacturers  flourish  and 
peace  and  prosperity  adorn  our  land.  "  After  a  long  night 
of  political  apprehension  "  was  at  length  seen  "  the  dawn  of 
National  happiness."  .  .  . 

After  the  city  of  New  York  had  been  selected  by  the  old 
Congress  for  the  meeting  of  the  new  Congress,  it  was  at  once 
determined  to  transform  the  old  City  Hall  into  the  new 
Federal  Hall.  A  number  of  wealthy  gentlemen  advanced 
the  thirty-two  thousand  dollars  needed  for  repairs.  The 
transformation  of  the  building  was  eagerly  watched  and  its 

18 


The  Inauguration  of  Washington         19 

progress  duly  reported  in  the  newspapers  of  the  day.  When 
thrown  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  public  a  short  time 
before  the  inauguration,  it  was  seen  to  be  an  imposing 
structure. 

On  Wednesday,  the  first  of  April,  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  formed  a  quorum  and  immediately  proceeded  to 


Old  City  Hall,  Wall  Street,  1776. 

the  transaction  of  business,  the  most  important  of  which 
was  the  counting  of  electoral  votes  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  George  Washington  of 
Virginia  was  the  unanimous  choice  for  President,  having 
received  sixty-nine,  or  the  total  number  of  votes  cast.  The 
next  highest  number,  or  thirty-four  votes,  were  cast  for 
John  Adams  of  Massachusetts  and  he  was  declared  elected 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

Only  one  man  was  thought  of  to  carry  the  notice  of  elec 
tion  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  he  was  Charles  Thomson. 
After  Mr.  Thomson  had  presented  to  the  President-elect  the 
certificate  of  election  which  the  President  of  the  Senate  had 


20 


A  New  Nation 


given  him  and  had  made  a  formal  address,  stating  the  pur 
pose  of  his  visit,  Washington  at  once  replied,  accepting  the 

appointment,  and  said  : 

"  I  am  so  much  affected 
by  this  fresh  proof  of  my 
country's  esteem  and  con 
fidence  that  silence  can 
best  explain  my  gratitude. 
While  I  realize  the  ardu 
ous  nature  of  the  task 
which  is  imposed  upon  me 
and  feel  my  own  inability 


Federal  Edifice,  New  York. 


to  perform  it,  I  wish  that 
there  may  not  be  reason  for 
regretting  the  choice;  for,  indeed,  all  I  can  promise  is  only 
to  accomplish  that  which  can  be  done  by  an  honest  zeal. 

"  Upon  considering  how  long  time  some  of  the  gentle 
men  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  have  been  at  New  York, 
how  anxiously  desirous  they  must  be  to  proceed  to  business, 
and  how  deeply  the  public  mind  appears  to  be  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  doing  it  speedily,  I  cannot  find  myself 
at  liberty  to  delay  my  journey.  I  shall,  therefore,  be  in  readi 
ness  to  set  out  the  day  after  to-morrow,  and  shall  be  happy 
in  the  pleasure  of  your  company;  for  you  will  permit  me  to 
say  that  it  is  a  peculiar  gratification  to  have  received  this 
communication  from  you." 

And  yet  Washington's  correspondence  during  the  fall  and 
winter  preceding  his  inauguration  shows  how  reluctant 
he  was  to  accept  the  Presidency.  To  Benjamin  Lincoln 
he  wrote :  "  I  most  heartily  wish  the  choice  you  allude 
to  may  not  fall  upon  me.  .  .  .  If  I  should  conceive 
myself  in  a  manner  constrained  to  accept,  I  call  Heaven  to 


The  Inauguration  of  Washington        21 

witness  that  this  very  act  would  be  the  greatest  sacrifice  of 
my  personal  feelings  and  wishes  that  ever  I  have  been  called 
upon  to  make."  To  Samuel  Hanson  he  said :  '  The  first 
wish  of  my  soul  is  to  spend  the  evening  of  my  days  as  a  pri 
vate  citizen  on  my  farm."  "  My  movements  to  the  chair  of 
government,"  he  wrote  to  Henry  Knox,  "  will  be  accom 
panied  by  feelings  not  unlike  those  of  a  culprit  who  is  going 
to  the  place  of  execution.  .  .  .  Integrity  and  firmness 
are  all  I  can  promise.  These,  be  the  voyage  long  or  short, 
shall  never  forsake  me." 

The  long-expected  day  was  now  at  hand.     It  was  the 
30th  of  April,  1789,  and  the  first  President  of  the  United 


Washington's  Pew  in  St.  Paul's  Church.  New  York. 


22 


A  New  Nation 


Fraunce's  Tavern,  on  Broad  and  Pearl  Streets. 

States  was  to  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  new  Constitution. 
With  a  discharge  of  artillery  at  sunrise  from  old  Fort  George 
near  Bowling  Green  began  the  ceremonies  of  the  day. 
Crowds  were  pouring  into  New  York.  "  We  shall  remain 
here  even  if  we  have  to  sleep  in  tents,  as  so  many  will  have  to 
do,"  wrote  Miss  Bertha  Ingersoll  to  Miss  McKean;  "  Mr. 
Williamson  had  promised  to  engage  us  rooms  at  Fraunce's1 
but  that  was  jammed  long  ago." 

At  9  the  bells  of  the  churches  rang  for  half  an  hour  and 
the  congregations  gathered  in  their  respective  places  of  wor 
ship  "  to  implore  the  blessings  of  Heaven  upon  their  new 
government,  its  favor  and  protection  to  the  President,  and 

1  Fraunce's  Tavern,  built  in  i/io.  It  was  Washington's  head 
quarters  in  1/83.  Here,  too,  Washington  hade  farewell  to  his  officers. 
December  4,  1783.  The  building  is  still  standing  at  101  Broad  street, 
corner  of  Pearl  street. 


The  Inauguration  of  Washington        23 

success  and  acceptance  to  his  administration."  The  mili 
tary  were  meanwhile  preparing  to  parade,  and  at  12  o'clock 
marched  before  the  President's  house  on  Cherry  street. 
.  .  .  arrived  within  t\vo  hundred  yards  of  Federal  Hall  at 
i  o'clock.  They  were  drawn  up  on  each  side  and  Washing 
ton  and  the  assistants  and  the  gentlemen  especially  invited 
passed  through  the  lines  and  proceeded  to  the  senate  chamber 
of  the  Federal  State  House. 

Washington  was  dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  dark  brown 
cloth  manufactured  at  Hartford,  with  metal  buttons,  with 
an  eagle  on  them,  and  "  with  a  steel-hilted  dress  sword, 
white  silk  stockings,  and  plain  silver  shoe-buckles.  His 
hair  was  dressed  and  powdered  in  the  fashion  of  the 
day."  .  .  . 

Secretary  Otis  of  the  Senate  held  before  him  a  red  vel 
vet  cushion,  upon  which  rested  the  open  Bible  of  St.  John's 
Lodge.  "  You  do  solemnly  swear,"  said  Chancellor  Robert 
R.  Livingston,  "  that  you  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  will  to  the  best  of  your 
ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  "  I  do  solemnly  swear,"  replied  Washing- 
ton,  "  that  I  will  faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  will  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
He  then  bowed  his  head  and  kissed  the 
sacred  book  and  with  the  deepest  feeling 
uttered  the  words,  "So  help  me,  God." 
The  Chancellor  then  proclaimed,  "  Long 
live  George  Washington,  President  of  the 
United  States."  The  instant  discharge  of  Chair  used  by  Wash- 
thirteen  cannon  followed. 


24  A  New  Nation 

After  delivering  his  address,  the  President,  accompanied 
by  the  Vice-President,  the  Speaker,  the  two  Houses  of  Con 
gress,  and  all  who  attended  the  inauguration  ceremony,  pro 
ceeded  on  foot  to  St.  Paul's  Church  where  services  were 
conducted  by  the  chaplain  of  the  Senate. 


Colonial   fragments. —  Door   trim   from   55   Broadway  —  George  Wash 
ington's  chair  —  clock  at  57  Broadway. 


HOW  WE  BOUGHT  LOUISIANA 
BY  HELEN  LOCKWOOD  COFFIN 

It  is  a  hard  matter  to  tell  just  how  much  power  a  little 
thing  has,  because  little  things  have  the  habit  of  growing. 
That  was  the  trouble  that  France  and  England  and  Spain 
and  all  the  other  big  nations  had  with  America  at  first.  The 
thirteen  colonies  occupied  so  small  and  unimportant  a  strip 
of  land  that  few  people  thought  they  would  ever  amount  to 
much.  How  could  such  insignificance  ever  bother  old  Eng 
land,  for  instance,  big  and  powerful  as  she  was?  To  Eng 
land's  great  loss  she  soon  learned  her  error  in  underestima 
ting  the  importance  or  strength  of  her  colonies. 

France  watched  the  giant  and  the  pygmy  fighting  together, 
and  learned  several  lessons  while  she  was  watching.  For 
one  thing,  she  found  out  that  the  little  American  colonies 
were  going  to  grow,  and  so  she  said  to  herself :  "  I  will  be  a 
sort  of  back-stop  to  them.  These  Americans  are  going  to 
be  foolish  over  this  bit  of  success,  and  think  that  just  because 
they  have  won  the  Revolution  they  can  do  anything  they 
wish  to  do.  They  '11  think  they  can  spread  out  all  over  this 
country  and  grow  to  be  as  big  as  England  herself;  and  of 
course  anybody  can  see  that  that  is  impossible.  I  '11  just  put 
up  a  net  along  the  Mississippi  River,  and  prevent  them  cross 
ing  over  it.  That  will  be  the  only  way  to  keep  them  within 
bounds." 

And  so  France  held  the  Mississippi,  and  from  there  back  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  whenever  the  United  States  citi- 

25 


26 


A  New  Nation 


zen  desired  to  go  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  France 
said :  "  No,  dear  child. 
Stay  within  your  own 
yard  and  play,  like  a  good 
little  boy,"  or  something 
to  that  effect. 

Now  the  United  States 
citizen  did  n't  like  this  at 
all ;  he  had  pushed  his 
way  with  much  trouble 
and  expense  and  hard 
work  through  bands  of 
Indians  and  through  for 
ests  and  over  rivers  and 
mountains,  into  Wiscon 
sin  and  Illinois,  and  he 
wished  to  go  farther. 
Thomas  Jefferson.  And,  besides,  he  wanted 

to  have  the  right  to  sail  up  and  down  the  Mississippi,  and 
so  save  himself  the  trouble  of  walking  over  the  land  and 
cutting  out  his  own  roads  as  he  went.  So  when  France 
said,  "  No,  dear,"  and  told  him  to  "  be  a  good  little  boy  and 
not  tease,"  the  United  States  citizen  very  naturally  rebelled. 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  President  of  the  United  States  at  that 
time,  and  he  was  a  man  who  hated  war  of  any  description. 
He  certainly  did  not  wish  to  fight  with  his  own  countrymen, 
and  he  as  certainly  did  not  wish  to  fight  with  any  other  na 
tion,  so  he  searched  around  for  some  sort  of  a  compro 
mise.  He  thought  that  if  America  could  own  even  one  port 
on  this  useful  river  and  had  the  right  of  Mississippi  naviga 
tion,  the  matter  would  be  settled  with  satisfaction  to  all 


How  We  Bought  Louisiana  27 

parties.  So  he  sent  James  Monroe  over  to  Paris  to  join 
our  minister,  Mr.  Livingston,  and  see  if  the  two  of  them  to 
gether  could  not  persuade  France  to  sell  them  the  island  of 
New  Orleans,  on  which  was  the  city  of  the  same  name. 

Now  Napoleon  was  the  ruler  of  France,  and  he  was 
dreaming  dreams  and  seeing  visions  in  which  France  was 
the  most  important  power  in  America,  because  she  owned 
this  wonderful  Mississippi  River  and  all  this  "  Louisiana  " 
which  stretched  back  from  the  river  to  the  Rockies.  He  al- 


The  United  States  after  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 

ready  held  forts  along  the  river,  and  he  was  planning  to 
strengthen  these  and  build  some  new  ones.  But  you  know 
what  happens  to  the  plans  of  mice  and  men  sometimes. 
Napoleon  was  depending  upon  his  army  to  help  him  out  on 
these  plans,  but  his  armies  in  San  Domingo  were  swept  away 


28  A  New  Nation 

by  war  and  sickness,  so  that  on  the  day  he  had  set  for  them 
to  move  up  into  Louisiana  not  a  man  was  able  to  go.  At  the 
same  time  Napoleon  had  on  hand  another  scheme  against 
England,  which  was  even  more  important  than  his  plans  for 
America,  and  which  demanded  men  and  money.  Besides 
this,  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  know  that  he  could  not  hold 
this  far-away  territory  for  any  long  time  against  England,, 
which  had  so  many  more  ships  than  France.  He  suddenly 
changed  his  mind  about  his  American  possessions,  and  nearly 
sent  Mr.  Monroe  and  Mr.  Livingston  into  a  state  of  collapse 
by  offering  to  sell  them  not  only  New  Orleans  but  also  the 
whole  Province  of  Louisiana. 

There  was  no  time  to  write  to  President  Jefferson  and 
ask  his  advice,  and  this  was  before  the  days  of  the  cable ;  so 
Monroe  and  Livingston  took  the  matter  into  their  own  hands, 
and  signed  the  contract  which  transferred  the  Louisiana 
territory  to  the  United  States  for  a  consideration  of 
$15,000,000.  They  were  severely  criticized  by  many  of 
their  own  countrymen,  and  they  had  some  doubts  of  their 
own  about  the  wisdom  of  their  action.  You  see,  nobody 
knew  then  that  corn  and  wheat  would  grow  so  abundantly  in 
this  territory,  or  that  beyond  the  Mississippi  there  were  such 
stretches  of  glorious  pasture-lands,  or  that  underneath  its 
mountainous  regions  were  such  mines  of  gold,  silver,  and 
copper.  Americans  saw  only  the  commercial  possibilities  of 
the  river,  and  all  they  wanted  was  the  right  of  navigating  it 
and  the  permission  to  explore  the  unknown  country  to  the 
westward. 

But  Jefferson  and  Monroe  and  Livingston  builded  better 
than  they  knew.  All  this  happened  a  hundred  years  ago ; 
and  to-day  that  old  Louisiana  territory  is,  in  natural  re 
sources,  the  wealthiest  part  of  the  whole  United  States. 


How  We  Bought  Louisiana 


29 


Without  that  territory  in  our  possession  we  should  have  no 
Colorado  and  no  Wyoming,  no  Dakotas,  or  Nebraska,  or 
Minnesota,  or  Montana,  or  Missouri,  or  Iowa,  or  Kansas,  or 
Arkansas,  or  Louisiana,  or  Oklahoma,  or  Indian  Territory. 

If  Columbus  had  never  discovered  America,  you  know, 
we  could  never  have  had  a  World's  Fair  in  Chicago ;  and  if 
Mr.  Monroe  and  Mr.  Livingston  had  never  purchased 
Louisiana,  we  could  have  had  no  Louisiana  Purchase  Expo 
sition. 

For  all  these  reasons  we  owe  our  most  sincere  and  hearty 
thanks  to  the  patriotic  and  far-sighted  men  who  were  con 
cerned  in  buying  this  territory  for  the  United  States. 


THE  LAST  CONQUISTADOR  1 
BY  E.   S.   BROOKS 

There  was  trouble  and  turmoil  in  the  Spanish  fort  at 
Baton  Rouge.  There  was  disquiet  and  unrest  through  all 
that  section  of  Louisiana  that  was  not  yet  free  from  the 
authority  of  Spain. 

It  was  the  summer  of  the  year  1810.  Emigrants  from 
the  pushing  States  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  from  the 
scarcely  conquered  forests  of  the  West  were  seeking  homes 
within  that  fair  and  fertile  southern  country,  through  which 
the  mighty  Mississippi  cuts  its  winding  way  to  the  Mexican 
Gulf.  And,  as  they  came,  they  brought  with  them  into  all 
that  soft  Southland  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pearl, 
the  sturdy  breezes  of  personal  liberty  and  civil  freedom. 
With  this  spirit  they  imbued  the  frontier  folk  among  whom 
they  came  to  settle,  and,  as  a  result,  they  grew  more  and  more 
aggressive  toward  the  slender  garrison  that,  in  the  tumble 
down  fort  at  Baton  Rouge,  sought  to  maintain  some  show 
of  authority  in  that  region  for  King  Ferdinand  of  Spain. 

It  was  but  a  sorry  show,  withal.  Rood  by  rood,  that  once 
magnificent  empire  that  De  Soto  had  conquered  for  his 
king  —  long  held  by  France,  and  again,  through  fifty  years, 
a  province  of  Spain, —  was  fast  slipping  away  from  the 

1  The  earlier  Spanish  fighters  in  America  delighted  in  the  title  of 
el  conquistador es,  the  conquerors.  This  story  of  the  boy  who  made 
the  last  stand  for  Spain  in  the  Mississippi  country  was  suggested  to 
me  by  Mr.  George  W.  Cable,  who  had  been  impressed  by  the  pluck 
and  loyalty  of  young  Louis  Grandpre. 

30 


The  Last  Conquistador  31 

Don's  unsteady  hand.  The  shifting  fortunes  of  war  and 
of  diplomacy  had  even  before  this  crisis-year  of  1810  re 
duced  Spain's  possessions  along  the  Mississippi  to  a  section 
not  very  much  larger  than  the  little  Northern  State  of 
Delaware. 

And  even  this  strip  of  Spanish  territory  the  American 
pioneers  openly  coveted.  Joining  to  themselves  the  dis 
affected  ones  among  the  French  colonists,  and  those  who, 
remembering  the  Don  O'Reilly's  iron  hand,  had  ever  hated 
Spain,  the  new-comers,  by  bluster  and  artifice,  by  much  talk 
and  the  most  persistent  scoffing  at  Spain's  shadow  of  author 
ity,  were  drawing  nearer  and  nearer  to  their  prize.  And 
now  the  only  "  lion  in  the  path  "  seemed  but  a  very  weak 
one  —  a  boy  of  sixteen,  stationed  in  an  old  and  crumbling 
fort  at  Baton  Rouge. 

This  was  the  way  of  it.  Don  Carlos  de  Grandpre,  gov 
ernor  and  commandant  for  Spain  at  Baton  Rouge,  was 
dead.  His  successor,  the  in  tend  ant  Delusas,  had,  through 
fear  or  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  succor,  absented  himself 
from  his  post,  leaving  in  charge  as  only  officer,  Louis  Grand 
pre,  the  son  of  the  former  governor. 

But  Louis  Grandpre  was  no  ordinary  boy.  Reared  amid 
all  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  a  frontier  post,  he  had  been 
compelled  to  assume  and  accept  responsibilities  early  in  life. 

The  mingled  French  and  Spanish  blood  that  flowed  in  his 
veins  bore  in  it  some  strain  of  the  old-time  heroism  which 
had  marked  the  days  of  paladin  and  Cid ;  and  Louis  Grand- 
pre's  one  legacy  from  his  father,  the  commandant,  was  this 
maxim  of  the  camp  :  A  soldier's  first  duty  is  obedience ;  his 
watchword,  "  Loyalty  to  King,  to  Country,  and  to  Flag." 

He  was  a  child  of  that  fair  Southern  land,  and  its  forests 
and  savannas,  its  bayous,  lakes,  and  rivers,  its  flowers  and 


32  A  New  Nation 

birds,  and  even  its  tropic  tangle  of  morass  and  swamp,  were 
all  dear  to  his  heart.  Above  them  the  flag  of  his  king  had 
waved  for  half  a  century,  and  to  defend  them  from  the 
enemies  of  his  king  was  his  duty  as  a  soldier  and  a  son  of 
Spain. 

Knowing  this  of  him,  we  can  understand  the  full  meaning 
of  the  defiant  attitude  and  the  flushed  face  of  the  boy  com 
mandant  of  Baton  Rouge  as,  on  a  bright  July  morning  of 
1810,  he  listened  to  the  report  with  which  the  old  half -pay 
sergeant,  Estevan  Sera,  who  had  served  under  this  lad's 
father,  came  to  headquarters. 

"My  capitan!" 

"Well,  sergeant?  " 

"  Here  has  come  to  us  sorry  news  from  above.  Pedro  the 
Natchez  is  just  in  from  the  Bayou  Sara  country,  and  tells  of 
much  plotting  against  us.  The  Americans  are  to  march 
upon  Baton  Rouge  speedily,  and  have  vowed  to  drive  us 
out." 

"  Well,  sergeant,  to  threaten  is  easy,  but  to  do  is  harder 
work.  Let  the  Americans  try  us  if  they  will.  We  can 
but  do  our  duty.  Who  leads  them  on?  " 

"  El  capitan  Thomas  heads  the  riflemen,  and  with  the 
dragoons  comes  that  son  of  Satan,  Depassau,  to  whom  your 
father  once  gave  life.  One  hundred  men  and  forty  is  the 
force  they  bring  —  and  what  can  we  hope  to  do  ?  " 

"  What,  sergeant,  but  hold  the  fort  for  Spain  and  for  the 
King!  For  that  we  are  here.  To  that  our  lives  are 
pledged;  and,  unless  other  orders  come  to  me  from  Pensa- 
cola,  that  will  I  strive  to  do.  A  soldier  of  Spain  can  but 
do  his  duty  —  and  die." 

With  many  a  "  caramba! "  of  protest  and  many  a  half- 
grumble  at  this  simple  but  unpleasant  doctrine  of  his  young 


The  Last  Conquistador  33 

commandant,  the  old  sergeant  shuffled  away;  and  yet,  even 
though  he  could  not  accept  the  alternative,  he  could  not  but 
rejoice  over  the  pluck  and  courage  of  this  boy  whom  he  had 
watched  and  tutored  almost  from  the  cradle. 

Misfortune  is  fleet  of  foot.  Even  before  young  Grandpre 
had  time  to  strengthen  his  works  and  decently  equip  his  com 
mand,  the  enemy  was  on  the  march.  Depassau  with  forty 
dragoons  was  approaching  by  the  St.  Francisville  road,  and 
Thomas,  with  more  than  eighty  riflemen,  had  bivouacked  in 
the  pinewoods  to  the  south. 

Matters  looked  black  indeed  for  the  young  commandant 
of  the  Spanish  fort. 

Louis  Grandpre  knew  —  none  better  —  the  character  of 
the  foemen  whom  he  must  face  in  fight.  The  dragoons,  as 
the  sergeant  had  called  them,  were  bold  horsemen  —  "  cow 
boys  "  of  that  early  day.  Full  of  the  tireless  spirit,  the 
daring,  and  the  recklessness  that  a  free  rein  on  the  broad 
savannas  of  the  Southwest  gives  to  every  ranger  of  the 
prairie  and  the  plains,  their  charges  were  irresistible,  their 
saber-swings  were  death.  The  riflemen  were  Northern 
foresters  —  desperate  fighters,  quick  of  eye,  unerring  of  aim, 
sharp-shooters,  and  sure  shooters  all.  Horse  and  foot  alike 
were,  as  he  knew,  distinguished  for  a  hardihood,  a  dash,  and 
an  alertness  in  action  that  not  one  of  the  lazy  veterans  in 
his  crippled  fort  was  capable  of  resisting. 

For  this  was  his  condition:  To  this  whirlwind  of 
"  Yankee  "  invasion  he  could  oppose  only  a  garrison  of  less 
than  fifty  worn-out  Spanish  soldiers  in  a  decaying  and  half 
dismantled  fort,  upon  which  scarcely  a  touch  of  repair  had 
been  made  since  the  days  —  a  half-dozen  years  before  - 
when  his  father,  Don  Carlos,  had  successfully  withstood 
just  such  an  invasion  of  Yankee  malcontents  —  though  with 


34 


A  New  Nation 


a  much  more  serviceable  garrison  and  against  a  much  less 
thoroughly  organized  foe. 

Riding  into  the  plaza,  or  "  grand  square,"  of  the  little 
town  of  Baton  Rouge,  Louis  stood  beneath  the  ample  folds 
of  the  big  Spanish  banner. 


"He  bade  his  men  stand  fast  for  the  King." 

"  Long  live  King  Ferdinand  !  "  he  cried  ;  and  then  he  sum 
moned  all  true  subjects  of  Spain  to  rally  to  the  support  of 
the  king's  garrison. 

"  Until  other  orders  shall  come  to  me,"  he  said,  "  I  am 
here  to  defend  the  charge  that  has  been  given  into  my  hands 
-the  fort  of  Baton  Rouge,  your  town,  and  the  king's  au 
thority  in  this  his  province.  He  who  sides  with  the  in 
vaders  is  a  traitor  to  the  king,  and  Spain  knows  no  mercy  to 


The  Last  Conquistador  35 

traitors.  Let  all  true  sons  and  subjects  of  Spain  follow  me 
into  the  fort !  " 

There  was  in  the  ringing  voice  and  determined  words  of 
this  manly  boy  an  enthusiasm  that  had  its  effect  upon  certain 
of  the  townspeople.  But  when,  with  the  banner  still  float 
ing  over  his  head  and  with  fife  and  drum  playing  a  martial 
air,  the  young  commandant  rode  back  through  the  gate  of  the 
fort,  less  than  forty  of  the  "  loyal  subjects  of  Spain  "  fol 
lowed  him  from  the  town. 

Arming  them  hastily,  he  placed  them  in  the  rear  rank,  be 
hind  the  regular  garrison,  and  then,  marshaling  his  little 
army  on  the  parade,  just  within  the  gates,  he  bade  his  men, 
in  a  few  earnest  words,  stand  fast  for  the  king. 

It  was  a  most  unpromising-looking  army.  It  numbered 
less  than  a  hundred  men  all  told. 

Could  he  depend  upon  them?  He  felt  assured  that  not 
much  confidence  was  to  be  placed  in  his  new  recruits  from 
the  town ;  and  as  for  the  soldiers  of  his  garrison  —  well,  even 
there  he  was  uncertain.  Most  of  them  were  old  and  in 
valided  soldiers  who  had  long  been  strangers  to  a  battle,  and 
very  many  of  them  were  little  better  than  cripples  —  sorry- 
looking  fellows  all  when  it  came  to  standing  before  a  cavalry 
charge  or  facing  riflemen's  fire. 

But  upon  them  alone  he  must  depend.  He  could  look 
nowhere  for  succor,  from  no  quarter  could  he  expect  it. 

Far  to  the  eastward  lay  Pensacola  and  the  little  Spanish 
province  of  Florida  —  scarcely  better  provided  for  defense 
or  resistance  than  was  his  threatened  post  of  Baton  Rouge. 

All  about  him,  crowding  into  the  very  smallest  show 
of  authority  and  space  the  contracted  limits  of  the  province 
he  was  set  to  guard,  stretched  the  lands  that  the  Americans 
had  bought  from  France  —  lands  forever  lost  to  Spain. 


36  A  New  Nation 

Within  the  "  Territory  of  Orleans  "  to  the  south  —  Amer 
ican    in   ownership,    Creole    and    French    in   population  — 
there  were  to  be  found  few  indeed  ready  to  lift  a  hand  in 
his   behalf,   to   strengthen   the   arm  or   train   the   guns   of 
Spain. 

To  the  east  the  Mississippi  territory  was  fast  filling  up 
with  Northern  folk,  English  by  birth  and  blood,  Americans 
all  in  future  and  in  desire.  The  failure  of  Colonel  Aaron 
Burr  had  shown  how  hard  it  was  to  win  these  new  settlers 
in  the  South  from  their  allegiance  to  the  spreading  and 
successful  American  Republic. 

Louis  Grandpre  knew  well  enough  that  the  end  was  not 
far  off.  He  knew,  too,  that  the  days  of  Spain's  sover 
eignty  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  were  doomed,  and  that, 
when  the  flag  of  his  king  came  down  from  the  tall  staff 
upon  the  time-stained  blockhouse  in  the  fort,  the  last  vestige 
of  Spain's  authority  would  be  swept  away. 

The  post  of  Baton  Rouge  was  Spain's  forlorn  hope,  left 
despairingly  upon  the  bayous  of  Louisiana.  And  he,  as  its 
commander,  must  stand  or  fall  with  it.  Los  Americanos 
should  see  what  it  meant  to  face  in  fight  the  gentlemen  of 
Spain! 

Alas!  it  is  always  so  easy  to  promise;  but  performance, 
as  we  shall  see,  is  quite  another  matter. 

"  The  gentlemen  of  Spain  "  had  not  long  to  wait.  There 
was  a  clatter  of  hoofs  through  the  deserted  town,  a  ringing 
Yankee  cheer,  and  the  shrill  call  of  the  bugle  demanding  a 
parley  at  the  gate. 

Somewhat  stiff  of  joint,  old  Sergeant  Sera  started  to 
answer  the  summons;  but  even  as  the  rickety  gate  swung 
open,  the  reckless  and  unconventional  Depassau,  contrary 
to  all  the  rules  of  war,  dashed  through  the  gate  at  the  head 


The  Last  Conquistador 


37 


of  his  forty  horsemen,  overthrowing  in  the  rush  the  slow- 
going  old  sergeant.  Dazed  and  dumbfounded  at  his  sud 
den  overthrow  and  at  this  breach  of  military  etiquette,  old 


"Doffing  his  hat,  he  bent  low  in  mock  courtesy  to  the  boy." 


Sera  picked  himself  up,  bruised  and  grumbling,  and  then 
burst  into  a  torrent  of  hot  Spanish  exclamations  more  per 
tinent  than  polite. 

The  ranks  of  the  Spanish  garrison  recoiled  perceptibly 


38  A  New  Nation 

before  this  unexpected  onset.  But  Louis  Grandpre,  sword 
in  hand,  faced  the  intruders. 

"  Sirs !  "  he  demanded,  "  what  means  this  armed  and 
hostile  entrance  into  a  fortress  of  the  King  of  Spain?  " 

"  What,  young  Grandpre! —  are  you  the  captain  here?" 
Depassau  said,  with  a  laugh,  as  he  reined  in  his  horse. 
"  Well,  we  want  the  fort;  that's  what  it  means.  Or  —  if 
you  must  have  it  in  better  form:  In  the  name  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  sovereign  State  of  West  Florida  I  demand  the 
instant  surrender  of  the  fortress  of  Baton  Rouge !  " 

"  Captain  Depassau,"  the  young  commandant  replied, 
"  this  post  of  Baton  Rouge,  belonging  to  His  Majesty  King 
Ferdinand  of  Spain,  has  been  left  in  my  charge,  as  intend- 
ant,  by  my  superior,  the  governor  of  Baton  Rouge.  He 
has  left  with  me  no  orders  to  hand  over  the  fort  to  others. 
Much  less  has  he  permitted  me  to  surrender  it  to  a  parcel 
of  rebels,  as  are  these  you  lead.  Until  other  commands 
come  to  me  from  the  governor  I  am  here  to  defend  this 
post-  and  that  I  will  do  with  my  life.  Unless  you  retire  at 
once,  I  shall  order  my  soldiers  to  fire  upon  you !  " 

"Well  crowed,  young  game-cock!"  cried  Depassau, 
while  a  chorus  of  laughter  from  his  band  echoed  his  words. 
"  Why,  what  a  young  fire-eater  it  is !  Most  noble  Sen  or 
Intcndentc"-  -  and,  doffing  his  hat,  he  bent  low  in  mock 
courtesy  to  the  boy,  who,  with  drawn  sword,  stood  so  de 
fiantly  in  his  path, — "  we  regret  to  inconvenience  so  valiant 
a  caballero,  but  we  have  taken  a  fancy  to  this  post  of  Baton 
Rouge,  and  we  mean  to  have  it  —  town,  fort,  commandant, 
and  all !  "  and,  swooping  down  upon  the  lad,  he  would  have 
seized  him  as  a  prisoner.  But  Louis  Grandpre  was  as  ac 
tive  as  he  was  valiant.  Deftly  dodging  the  attempt  at 
capture  — "  Ha,  Depassau  !  "  he  shouted,  "  traitor  and 


The  Last  Conquistador  39 

double  traitor,  would  you  seek  to  turn  a  parley  into  an  at 
tack  ?  Holo,  my  men !  Ready !  Fire !  Drive  these  traitors 
out!" 

And,  with  ringing  voice  and  waving  sword,  he  turned 
toward  the  ranks  of  his  garrison  to  inspire  them  to  instant 
action.  Not  a  man  was  there ! 

Those  Spanish  soldiers  had  a  healthily  developed  fear  of 
los  Americanos.  The  long  rifles  and  the  ready  sabers  of 
those  Yankees,  their  unerring  aim  and  their  resistless  dash, 
were  not  pleasant  enemies  to  face  in  the  open  field.  They 
believed  their  only  safety  lay  behind  stout  walls. 

So  it  was  that,  quietly,  but  hastily  and  unanimously,  the 
garrison  of  Baton  Rouge  had  deemed  discretion  the  better 
part  of  valor,  and,  without  awaiting  the  formality  of  the 
word  of  command,  had  withdrawn  into  the  blockhouse  that 
formed  the  inner  defense  of  every  frontier  fort  of  the  last 
century. 

Depassau's  horsemen  laughed  in  loud  derision.  But  on 
Louis  Grandpre's  face  anger  and  sorrow  alike  raised  the 
flush  of  shame. 

"  Cowards !  "  he  cried,  turning  to  the  blockhouse,  "  would 
you  run  from  a  parcel  of  Yankee  rebels?  Holo  there! 
Come  out !  To  your  captain,  my  men !  For  Spain  !  For 
Spain !  " 

"  Come,  come,  Louis,  my  lad/'  Depassau  said  patron 
izingly,  "  I  don't  want  to  hurt  you.  I  want  only  this  fort, 
and  have  it  I  will.  Your  men  are  afraid  to  fight.  What 
is  the  use  of  holding  out  longer?  Pull  down  your  Spanish 
flag  from  the  blockhouse  yonder ;  march  out  your  men,  and 
we  will  put  you  on  your  way  to  Pensacola,  without  a 
scratch.  Come;  give  up  your  sword." 

"  Never !  "  answered  the  boy,  haughtily.     "  My  sword  is 


A  New  Nation 


my  king's.  I  would  rather  die  than  break  my  promise.  It 
is  my  duty  to  hold  this  post  for  my  master,  King  Ferdi 
nand,  and  hold  it  I  will  —  or  die !  " 

"  We  have  wasted  too  much  time  on  you  already,"  De- 
passau  angrily  broke  out.  "  For  the  blockhouse,  boys ! 
Charge ! " 

And  at  his  word  the  horsemen  dashed  up  to  the  tumble 
down  palisade  that  protected  the  door  to  the  blockhouse, 
set  in  an  angle  of  the  fort. 

But,  quick  as  was  their  action,  Louis  Grandpre  was  be 
fore  them.  With  a  spring  he  cleared  the  space  that  lay  be 
fore  the  palisade,  closed  and  barred  the  rickety  gate,  and 
the  next  instant  was  within  the  blockhouse  rallying  his 
men. 

But  they  refused  to  be  rallied. 

"  Of  what  use  is  it  to  make  a  stand  against  them,  my 

captain?  "  old  Ser 
geant  Sera  asked. 
"  It  is  only  to  meet 
death.  Their  rifles 
and  their  sabers  are 
too  strong  for  us 
to  face." 

"  What !  would 
you  have  me  too 
turn  traitor,  and 
basely  give  up 
what  I  am  charged 
to  defend?"  the 
boy  indignantly  de 
manded.  "  Is  it 

"  Louis    Grandpre    rushed    from    the    block-    , «  ,-\     c* 

house -alone."  thus>    O    Sergeant, 


The  Last  Conquistador  41 

that  my  father  would  have  done  —  or  Galvez,  the  young 
hero  who  won  this  very  fort  of  Baton  Rouge  from  the  Eng 
lish?  No;  they  would  have  fought  to  the  death!  Holo, 
my  men!  twenty  of  you  to  the  port-holes  with  your  guns. 
Fire  when  I  bid  you.  Do  you,  Sera,  look  to  the  defenses. 
The  rest  —  you  who  love  Spain  and  honor  your  king  — 
follow  me  and  drive  the  rebels  out !  " 

And,  sword  in  hand,  young  Grandpre  rushed  from  the 
blockhouse  to  meet  the  foe  —  alone ! 

At  that  very  instant,  with  a  loud  war-whoop,  in  through 
the  southern  gate  of  the  fort  dashed  Thomas  and  his  eighty 
border  rifles.  Beneath  the  blows  of  the  dismounted  dra 
goons  the  crazy  gate  of  the  palisade  went  down  with  a 
crash,  and  with  a  mighty  cheer  the  Americans  swarmed  into 
the  inclosure. 

"  Back,  on  your  lives !  Ho,  in  the  blockhouse  there ! 
Fire  on  these  rebels !  " 

With  his  back  firmly  set  against  the  blockhouse  wall, 
his  lifted  sword  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  before  them  all 
he  stood  defiant  —  one  against  a  hundred ! 

There  came  a  clatter  of  horsemen  charging  up  to  the 
door  of  the  blockhouse;  there  rang  out  a  volley  from  the 
Northern  rifles  as  the  besiegers  rushed  in  —  and  that  was 
all !  At  the  door  that  shielded  his  craven  garrison, — 
within  the  fort  which,  because  he  had  no  instruction  to 
surrender  it,  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  defend  to  the  last, — 
Louis  Grandpre  fell. 

"  Long  live  King  Ferdinand !  "  he  cried.  "  Santiago 
and  Spain !  " 

And  so  he  died  —  a  martyr  to  duty. 

Then,  surrounded  by  the  resistless  invaders,  the  thor 
oughly  frightened  garrison  cried  aloud  for  quarter,  the 


42  A  New  Nation 

Spanish  flag  came  fluttering  down,  and  the  last  hold  of 
Spain  upon  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  broken. 

Not  alone  to  the  soldier  of  freedom  does  death  in  the 
hour  of  victory  or  defeat  bring  glory  everlasting.  Even 
to  him,  who,  in  the  face  of  certain  disaster,  upholds  the 
honor  of  his  flag,  is  praise  abounding  due. 

Louis  Grandpre  died  a  hero.  And  American  boys  who 
honor  the  brave  can  assuredly  pause  in  their  pride  in  all 
that  is  American  to  bestow  a  word  of  appreciation  upon 
the  gallant  lad  who  was  faithful  to  his  trust,  and  man 
fully  struck  the  last  blow  for  Spain  in  the  land  where  Spain 
had  won  and  lost  an  empire. 


Desk  on  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  written. 
From  a  drawing  by  Thomas  Jefferson. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  (1812) 
BY  PRESIDENT  JAMES  MADISON 

France  has  done  nothing  towards  adjusting  our  dif 
ferences  with  her.  It  is  understood  that  the  Berlin  and 
Milan  Decrees  are  not  in  force  against  the  United  States, 
and  no  contravention  of  them  can  be  established  against 
her.  On  the  contrary,  positive  cases  rebut  the  allegation. 
Still,  the  manner  of  the  French  Government  betrays  tin- 
design  of  leaving  G.  Britain  a  pretext  for  enforcing  her 
Orders  in  Council.  And  in  all  other  respects,  the  grounds 
for  our  complaints  remain  the  same.  ...  In  the  mean 
time,  the  business  is  become  more  than  ever  puzzling.  To 
go  to  war  with  England  and  not  with  France  arms  the 
Federalists  writh  new  matter,  and  divides  the  Republicans, 
some  of  whom,  with  the  Quids,  make  a  display  of  impar 
tiality.  To  go  to  war  against  both  presents  a  thousand 
difficulties;  above  all,  that  of  shutting  all  the  ports  of  the 
Continent  of  Europe  against  our  cruisers,  who  can  do  little 
without  the  use  of  them.  It  is  pretty  certain,  also,  that  it 
would  not  gain  over  the  Federalists,  who  would  turn  all 
those  difficulties  against  the  administration.  The  only 
consideration  of  weight  in  favor  of  this  triangular  war,  as 
it  is  called,  is,  that  it  might  hasten  through  a  peace  with 
G.  Britain  or  France ;  a  termination,  for  a  while,  at 
least,  of  the  obstinate  questions  now  depending  with  both. 

But  even  this  advantage  is  not  certain.  For  a  prolon 
gation  of  such  a  war  might  be  viewed  by  both  belligerents 

43 


44  A  New  Nation 

as  desirable,  with  as  little  reason  for  the  opinion  as  has 
prevailed  in  the  past  conduct  of  both. 

[June  22.]  I  inclose  a  paper  containing  the  Declaration 
of  war.  .  .  .  It  is  understood  that  the  Federalists 
in  Congress  are  to  put  all  the  strength  of  their  talents  into 
a  protest  against  the  war,  and  that  the  party  at  large  are  to 
be  brought  out  in  all  their  force. 

[July  25.]  The  conduct  of  the  nation  against  whom 
this  resort  has  been  proclaimed  left  no  choice  but  between 
that  and  the  greater  evil  of  a  surrender  of  our  Sovereignty 
on  the  Element  on  which  all  nations  have  equal  rights,  and 
in  the  free  use  of  which  the  United  States,  as  a  nation 
whose  agriculture  and  commerce  are  so  closely  allied,  have 
an  essential  interest. 

The  appeal  to  force  in  opposition  to  the  force  so  long 
continued  against  us  had  become  the  more  urgent,  as  every 
endeavor  short  of  it  had  not  only  been  fruitless,  but  had 
been  followed  by  fresh  usurpations  and  oppressions.  The 
intolerable  outrages  committed  against  the  crews  of  our  ves 
sels,  which,  at  one  time,  were  the  result  of  alleged  searches 
for  deserters  from  British  ships  of  war,  had  grown  into  a 
like  pretension,  first,  as  to  all  British  seamen,  and  next,  as 
to  all  British  subjects;  with  the  invariable  practice  of  seiz 
ing  on  all  neutral  seamen  of  every  Nation,  and  on  all  such 
of  our  own  seamen  as  British  officers  interested  in  the  abuse 
might  please  to  demand. 

The  Blockading  orders  in  Council,  commencing  on  the 
plea  of  retaliating  injuries  indirectly  done  to  G.  Britain, 
through  the  direct  operation  of  French  Decrees  against 
the  trade  of  the  United  States  with  her,  and  on  a  professed 
disposition  to  proceed  step  by  step  with  France  in  revoking 
them,  have  been  since  bottomed  on  pretensions  more  and 


Causes  of  the  War 


45 


more  extended  and  arbitrary,  till 
at  length  it  is  openly  avowed  as 
indispensable  to  a  repeal  of  the 
Orders  as  they  affect  the  U. 
States,  that  the  French  Decrees 
be  repealed  as  they  affect  G. 
Britain  directly,  and  all  other 
neutrals,  as  well  as  the  United 
States.  To  this  extraordinary 
avowal  is  superadded  abundant 
evidence  that  the  real  object  of 
the  Orders  is,  not  to  restore  free 
dom  to  the  American  Commerce 
with  G.  Britain,  which  could,  in-  James  Madison, 

deed,  be  little  interrupted  by  the  Decrees  of  France,  but  to 
destroy  our  lawful  commerce,  as  interfering  with  her  own 
unlawful  commerce  with  her  enemies.  The  only  founda 
tion  of  this  attempt  to  banish  the  American  flag  from  the 
highway  of  Nations,  or  to  render  it  wholly  subservient  to 
the  commercial  views  of  the  British  Government,  is  the  ab 
surd  and  exploded  doctrine  that  the  ocean,  not  less  than 
the  land,  is  susceptible  of  occupancy  and  dominion;  that 
this  dominion  is  in  the  hands  of  G.  Britain;  and  that 
her  laws,  not  the  law  of  Nations,  which  is  ours  as  well  as 
hers,  are  to  regulate  our  maritime  intercourse  with  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

When  the  United  States  assumed  and  established  their 
rank  among  the  nations  of  the  Earth,  they  assumed  and 
established  a  common  Sovereignty  on  the  high  seas,  as  \vell 
as  an  exclusive  sovereignty  within  their  territorial  limits. 
The  one  is  as  essential  as  the  other  to  their  character  as  an 
Independent  Nation.  However  conceding  they  may  have 


46  A  New  Nation 

been  on  controvertible  points,  or  forbearing  under  casual 
and  limited  injuries,  they  can  never  submit  to  wrongs  ir 
reparable  in  their  kind,  enormous  in  their  amount,  and  in 
definite  in  their  duration;  and  which  are  avowed  and  justi 
fied  on  principles  degrading  the  United  States  from  the 
rank  of  a  sovereign  and  independent  power.  In  attaining 
this  high  rank,  and  the  inestimable  blessings  attached  to  it, 
no  part  of  the  American  people  had  a  more  meritorious 
share  than  the  people  of  New  Jersey.  From  none,  there 
fore,  may  more  reasonably  be  expected  a  patriotic  zeal  in 
maintaining  by  the  sword  the  unquestionable  and  unalien- 
able  rights  acquired  by  it  . 


Sugar-bowl  belonging  to  a  dinner-set  presented  to  Martha  Washington 
by  General  Lafayette. 


LAURELS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  TAR  IN  1812 
BY  EDGAR  S.  MACLAY 

It  was  during  the  War  of  1812  that  the  advantage  of 
building  our  cruisers  so  that  "  separately  [they]  would  be 
superior  to  any  single  European  frigate  of  the  usual  dimen 
sions  "  was  demonstrated.  In  the  three  years  of  that  war 
the  British  navy  met  with  disasters  which  were  unique  in 
its  annals.  Before  the  close  of  the  war  the  British  Admi 
ralty  were  compelled  to  build  in  imitation  of  the  American 
cruisers.  On  the  i/th  of  March,  1814,  the  following  no 
tice  appeared  in  the  London  Times:  "  Sir  G.  Collier  was 
to  sail  yesterday  from  Portsmouth  for  the  American  sta 
tion  in  the  Lcander,  54.  This  ship  has  been  built  and  fitted 
out  exactly  upon  the  plan  of  the  large  American  frigates." 

The  second  idea  embodied  in  the  Secretary's  report  of 
1794,  in  regard  to  building  American  cruisers,  wras  "  that 
if  sailed  by  numbers  they  would  be  always  able  to  lead 
ahead."  At  the  very  threshold  of  the  War  of  1812  the 
Constitution  owed  her  escape  from  Captain  Broke's  squad 
ron,  in  a  large  degree,  to  this  very  forethought  in  her  con 
struction.  For  three  nights  and  two  days,  beginning  on 
July  17,  off  New  York,  she  was  in  imminent  danger  of 
capture,  part  of  which  time  she  was  almost  within  gunshot 
of  their  leading  ships.  To  this  same  provision  in  her  con 
struction  the  President  owed  her  remarkable  career  and 
numerous  escapes  from  British  squadrons  and  ships  of  the 
Hue  while  she  was  scouring  all  corners  of  the  navigable 

47 


48  A  New  Nation 

globe  in  her  daring  essays  against  the  enemy's  commerce. 
Such  was  her  success  in  this  particular  that  the  origin  of  the 
common  sea  phrase  "  By  the  jumping  John  Rodgers  "  is 
attributable  to  her  exploits,  Commodore  John  Rodgers  be 
ing  her  commander  during  the  greater  part  of  this  war. 

Again,  in  April,  1815,  while  in  the  Southern  Atlantic 
the  sloop-of-war  Hornet  was  chased  three  days  and  three 
nights  by  the  British  ship  of  the  line  Cornwallis,  Admiral 
Sir  George  Burleton.  So  close  was  the  pursuit  that  at 
times  "  shot  and  shell  were  whistling  about  our  ears  and 
not  a  person  on  board  had  the  most  distant  idea  that  there 
was  a  possible  escape.  We  all  packed  our  things  and 
waited  until  the  enemy's  shot  would  compel  us  to  heave  to 
and  surrender.  Captain  Bicldle  mustered  the  crew  and 
told  them  he  was  pleased  with  their  conduct  during  the 
chase,  and  looked  still  to  perceive  that  propriety  of  conduct 
which  had  already  marked  their  character  and  that  of  the 
American  tar  generally;  that  we  might  soon  expect  to  be 
captured,  etc.  Not  a  dry  eye  was  to  be  seen  at  the  mention 
of  the  capture  of  the  poor  little  Hornet."  But  notwith 
standing  the  closeness  of  the  chase  the  Hornet  finally  ef 
fected  her  escape  through  her  sailing  qualities. 

In  no  instance  up  to  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  was  an 
American  cruiser  overtaken  by  a  vessel  of  her  own  class 
when  she  was  desirous  of  making  her  escape.  The  case  of 
the  President  when  pursued  by  Captain  Hayes's  squadron 
on  the  1 5th  of  January,  1815,  cannot  be  noted  as  an  excep 
tion,  for  the  reason  that  while  endeavoring  to  get  out  of 
New  York  harbor,  the  night  before  the  chase,  she  grounded 
on  the.  bar,  where  for  two  hours  she  thumped  violently  and 
became  so  "  hogged  "  or  "  broken-backed  "  as  to  impair 
seriously  her  seaworthiness.  A  portion  of  her  false  keel 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar 


49 


was  displaced,  several  rudder  braces  broken,  and  the  frigate 
otherwise  so  injured  as  to  render  a  return  to  port  imper 
ative.  This,  however,  owing  to  the  strength  and  direction 
of  the  wind,  was  impossible,  so  she  was  forced  over  the 
bar  and  put  to  sea  in  a  crippled  condition.  After  dis 
mantling  the  Endymion  —  during  which  action  Commodore 
Decatur  was  wounded  by  a  splinter  —  the  President  was 
attacked  by  the  Tenedos  and  Pomona  before  her  rigging 
could  be  repaired,  and  was  forced  to  surrender. 

The  American  system  of  officering,  manning,  and  carry 
ing  on  discipline  was  superior  to  that  of  the  English.     Im- 


The  Wounding  of  Decatur. 

pressment  was  rarely,  if  ever,  resorted  to;  the  men  enlisted 
of  their  own  free  will,  and  tempted  by  generous  wages  the 
finest  seamen  flocked  to  our  service.  Many  of  the  petty 
officers  had  been  mates  and  even  masters  in  merchantmen 


50  A  New  Nation 

before  the  War  of  1812,  and  contributed  not  a  little  by  their 
skill  and  experience  to  the  results  of  that  conflict.  While 
English  press-gangs  were  descending  on  quiet  towns,  and 
hurrying  men  into  service  without  giving  them  time  to 
arrange  their  affairs  for  the  change,  American  frigates  were 
having  their  complements  filled  with  picked  seamen  by 
merely  announcing  vacancies.  The  superiority  of  most 
American  crews  during  this  war  was  so  obvious  as  to  need 
little  discussion.  William  James  concedes  the  point,  and 
while  speaking  of  the  44-gun  frigate  United  States  further 
adds : 

The  crew  of  the  United  States  were  the  finest  set  of  men  ever 
seen  collected  on  shipboard.  Had  Captain  Decatur  and  his  five 
lieutenants  been  below  in  the  hold,  there  were  officers  enough 
among  the  ship's  company  to  have  brought  the  action  to  the  same 
successful  issue.1 

But  it  was  in  the  matter  of  officering  the  ship  that  the 
American  system  had  the  greatest  advantage.  Favoritism 
and  family  influence,  which  elevated  men  to  high  rank  over 
the  heads  of  older  and  more  deserving  officers,  cost  the 
British  navy  many  bitter  humiliations  during  the  War  of 
1812.  The  battle  of  Lake  Champlain  affords  a  good  illus 
tration  of  the  manner  in  which  British  commanders  were 
outmanceuvered  and  outwitted.  The  forces  engaged  on 
this  occasion  were  nearly  equal,  that  of  the  Americans  be 
ing  86  guns  of  1,904  pounds  of  metal  and  850  men,  while 
the  English  force  was  92  guns  of  1,900  pounds  of  metal 
and  1,000  men.  After  the  battle  had  lasted  two  hours 
without  either  side  being  able  to  turn  the  tide,  Captain  Mac- 
donough  in  the  Saratoga  found  himself  in  a  most  critical 
condition.  The  Linnet  had  secured  a  very  advantageous 

1  James's  "History  of  the  British  Navy/'  Vol.  V.,  p.  401. 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar  51 

position  off  the  Eagle's  starboard  quarter  where  the  latter 
could  bring  but  few  guns  to  bear.  Finding  his  springs  shot 
away,  Captain  Henly  of  the  Eagle  sheeted  home  his  top 
sails,  stood  about,  ran  down  the  western  side  of  the  Amer 
ican  line,  and  anchored  between  the  Saratoga  and  Ticonder- 
oga.  This  brought  the  Eagle's  fresh  (port)  broadside  in 
full  play  on  the  Confiance,  Captain  Downie's  flagship,  but 
it  also  enabled  the  Linnet  to  turn  the  American  line.  Cap 
tain  Pring  of  the  Linnet  immediately  availed  himself  of 
this  advantage  and  soon  was  athwart  the  Saratoga's  fore 
foot,  raking  her  from  stem  to  stern  with  great  effect. 

As  gun  after  gun  was  disabled  the  firing  between  the 
flagships  gradually  diminished  until  only  a  few  cannon  were 
in  use.  Aboard  the  Saratoga  nearly  all  the  carronades  had 
been  rendered  useless  by  overcharging.  Now  that  the 
Linnet  was  raking  her  with  impunity,  the  situation  of  the 
American  flagship  was  desperate  in  the  extreme.  To  add 
to  her  accumulating  disasters  the  bolt  of  the  last  carronade 
on  the  engaged  side  broke;  the  gun,  flying  off  its  carriage, 
tumbled  down  the  main  hatch.  This  left  her  with  nearly 
every  gun  in  her  starboard  battery  dismounted,  while  the 
Confiance  and  Linnet  were  still  keeping  up  an  effective  fire. 

It  was  in  this  extremity,  when  by  all  human  calculations 
the  day  was  lost,  that  the  forethought  of  the  American 
commander  came  into  play.  \Yhen  arranging  his  line  of 
battle  he  took  the  precaution  to  anchor  his  vessels  far 
enough  apart  so  that  should  the  starboard  battery  of  any 
ship  become  disabled  her  commander,  by  tripping  his  bow 
anchor  and  then  dropping  a  stern  anchor,  could  swing  his 
vessel  around  in  the  northerly  breeze  and  bring  a  fresh 
broadside  to  bear  on  the  enemy  without  breaking  the  line 
of  battle  or  overlapping  the  ship  astern. 


52  A  New  Nation 

The  time  had  now  come  when  the  Saratoga  must  either 
surrender  or  bring  more  guns  to  bear.  Accordingly  Cap 
tain  Macdonough  manned  his  capstan  and  tripped  the 
bower  anchor,  at  the  same  time  letting  go  his  stream  anchor 
over  the  stern.  But  unfortunately  the  wind  had  abated  so 
that  the  ship  remained  motionless.  A  line,  which  had  been 


"  Preble,"      "  Ticonderoga," 
"  Chubb," 


Eagle,"      "  Saratoga," 
"  British   Galleys," 


''  Linnet," 


"  Confiance," 
Finch." 


BATTLE   OF   LAKE   CHAMPLAIN. 


The  Saratoga  and  Eagle  are  represented  in  their  second  position  ;  the 
Chubb  has  been  captured  and  is  being  carried  within  the  American 
line,  and  the  Confiance  is  being  raked  by  the  Saratoga. 

made  fast  to  the  stream  anchor,  was  then  carried  forward 
and  hauled  on.  This  slowly  brought  the  vessel  around, 
but  during  all  of  this  time  the  Linnet  \vas  pouring  in  broad 
side  after  broadside,  and  now  as  the  Saratoga  exposed  her 
stern  the  Confiance  raked  her  with  great  effect.  After  sev 
eral  minutes  of  this  fearful  exposure  Captain  Macdonough 
succeeded  in  bringing  his  port  battery  into  full  play.  The 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar  53 

Americans  then  rushed  to  their  guns  and  worked  with 
vigor.  Being  subjected  to  the  fire  of  this  fresh  broadside, 
the  Confiance  soon  had  the  few  remaining  guns  of  her  port 
battery  disabled.  Seeing  the  success  of  the  Saratoga's 
manceuver,  the  British  commander  attempted  it  also.  He 
hove  in  his  bow  cables  until  he  tripped  anchor.  But  fur 
ther  than  this  his  ship  would  not  move  for  want  of  wind, 
and  lacking  the  quick  expedients  of  the  American  officers, 
he  saw  his  ship  become  a  wreck  without  being  able  to  strike 
a  blow  in  return,  so  after  a  conflict  of  two  hours  and  a  half 
he  surrendered. 

Another  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  readiness  of  an 
American  officer  was  afforded  in  the  fourth  cruise  of  the 
Constitution.  Captain  Charles  Stewart,  born  of  poor  par 
ents  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  in  1778,  entered  upon  the 
profession  of  the  sea  in  his  thirteenth  year  as  cabin  boy  in 
a  merchantman,  and  rose  step  by  step  ^through  personal 
merit  to  the  command  of  the  favorite  frigate  of  the  Amer 
ican  navy. 

After  his  extraordinary  action  with  the  corvette  C^ane 
and  sloop  Levant  sixty  leagues  from  Madeira  in  February, 
1815  (both  after  a  gallant  resistance  being  captured),  Cap 
tain  Stewart  dropped  anchor  with  his  prizes  in  Port  Praya, 
in  the  island  of  St.  Jago,  on  the  loth  of  March.  It  was 
his  intention  to  employ  the  merchant  ship  captured  on  the 
i8th  of  the  preceding  month  as  a  cartel  in  which  to  send 
all  prisoners  to  England,  preparatory  to  which  they  were 
collected  in  groups  on  the  Constitution's  main  deck.  While 
the  Americans  were  busily  engaged  the  officer  of  the  deck, 
Lieutenant  Shubrick,  was  attracted  by  an  exclamation  from 
one  of  the  British  midshipmen.  Noticing  that  an  English 
lieutenant  reprimanded  him  in  an  undertone.  Lieutenant 


54  A  New  Nation 

Shubrick  became  suspicious  of  foul  play  or  some  conspir 
acy,  and  was  about  to  communicate  his  fears  to  Captain 
Stewart,  when  a  quartermaster  called  his  attention  to  the 
sails  of  a  large  vessel  just  discernible  through  the  fog  in 
the  offing.  The  sea  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor  was  cov 
ered  with  a  heavy  mist,  but  in  the  lighter  haze  above  the 
sails  of  a  large  ship  making  its  way  to  port  were  visible. 

This  apparition,  evidently  the  cause  of  the  midshipman's 
exclamation,  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  Captain  Stew 
art.  As  the  fog  shifted  a  little  the  sails  of  two  more  ves 
sels,  apparently  heavy  men-of-war,  were  discovered  by  the 
sharp-eyed  quartermaster  standing  into  the  roads.  After 
the  experience  of  the  Essex  at  Valparaiso,  Captain  Stewart 
well  knew  that  English  commanders  could  not  be  trusted  to 
respect  the  rights  of  neutral  ports  that  were  not  sufficiently 
fortified  to  enforce  them.  The  defenses  of  Port  Pray  a  were 
impotent  against  a  first-rate  frigate,  and  should  the  sails 
descried  in  the  offing  prove  to  be  those  of  English  men-of- 
war,  as  five  chances  to  one  they  were,  the  position  of  the 
Constitution  and  her  prizes  was  critical  in  the  extreme. 

Captain  Stewart  instantly  sent  his  crew  to  quarters,  pris 
oners  were  hurried  below,  the  cables  cut,  topsails  set,  and 
in  seven  minutes  from  the  time  of  the  first  alarm  the  frigate 
was  under  way.  Signals  were  made  to  the  Cyane  and 
Levant  to  follow,  Lieutenants  Hoffman  and  Ballard  pre 
cipitately  obeyed,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  the  three 
ships  were  speeding  pell-mell  down  the  harbor.  A  number 
of  prisoners  who  had  been  landed  were  left  behind,  and 
observing  the  strange  sails  in  the  offing  and  surmising  them 
to  be  English,  they  rushed  to  a  battery  and  began  firing  so 
as  to  warn  the  approaching  strangers  of  the  presence  of  en 
emies. 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar 


55 


The  Constitution  in  action  with  the  Levant  and  Cyane. 

The  wind  was  fresh  from  the  northeast,  while  the 
strangers  were  approaching  the  harbor  from  the  south. 
Captain  Stewart  therefore  hugged  the  north  shore,  hoping 
to  get  to  sea  to  the  windward  of  them.  Just  as  the  Amer 
ican  vessels  were  clearing  East  Point  the  strangers  came 
within  long  range.  At  this  instant  they  discovered  the 
Americans  and  crowded  on  all  sail  to  intercept  them.  It 
now  became  a  question  of  sailing.  The  Constitution 
crossed  her  topgallant  yards,  set  foresail,  mainsail,  spanker, 
flying-jib,  and  her  topgallant  sails,  while  the  two  boats  tow 
ing  astern  were  cut  adrift.  The  Cyane  and  Levant  fol 
lowed  in  quick  succession,  while  the  enemy  luffed  up, 
close-hauled  their  tacks,  and  settled  down  for  a  long  and 
determined  chase. 

The  strangers  proved  to  be  the  English  5O-gun  frigate 
Leander,  Sir  George  Collier,  which  we  noticed  as  having 
"  been  built  and  fitted  out  exactly  upon  the  plan  of  the  large 


56  A  New  Nation 

American  frigates  " ;  the  5O-ton  frigate  Newcastle,  Captain 
Lord  George  Stuart;  and  the  4ogun  frigate  A  cast  a,  Cap 
tain  Kern  This  powerful  squadron  had  followed  the  Con 
stitution  across  the  Atlantic  into  this  obscure  quarter  and 
now  had  her  under  their  guns. 

Although  the  American  vessels  had  gained  an  offing  it 
was  still  so  foggy  that  the  hulls  of  the  enemy  were  con 
cealed,  so  that  Captain  Stewart  was  unable  to  make  out 
their  force  or  nationality.  All  the  ships,  however,  had 
every  stitch  of  canvas  set  from  royal  studding-sails  down, 
and  were  rushing  through  the  water  at  ten  knots.  The 
A  cast  a,  by  laying  her  head  close  to  the  wind,  succeeded  in 
weathering  the  Cyane  and  Levant,  but  the  splendid  sailing 
qualities  of  the  Constitution  enabled  Captain  Stewart  to 
hold  his  own.  Observing  that  he  was  drawing  away  from 
his  prizes  and  that  the  enemy  must  soon  close  on  them,  he, 
at  ten  minutes  past  one  o'clock,  signaled  the  Cyane,  the 
sternmost  vessel,  to  tack  to  the  northwest,  hoping  thereby 
to  divide  the  enemy's  force.  Lieutenant  Hoffman  tacked 
as  ordered,  but,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  none  of  the  pursuing 
ships  were  detailed  after  her.  Taking  advantage  of  this 
blunder,  the  Cyane  continued  on  this  course,  until  she  had 
run  the  enemy  out  of  sight,  when  she  made  for  America, 
arriving  in  New  York  on  the  loth  of  April. 

By  2.30  P.  M.  the  Newcastle  had  gained  a  position  off  the 
Constitution's  lee  quarter  and  commenced  firing  by  divi 
sions.  The  shot  splashed  the  water  within  a  hundred  yards 
of  the  ship,  but  did  not  reach  her.  At  3  p.  M.  the  Levant 
wras  in  the  same  danger  from  which  the  Cyane  had  so 
strangely  been  allowed  to  escape.  Captain  Stewart  now 
signaled  the  Levant  to  head  northwest  also,  hoping  that 
this  would  draw  off  one  of  his  pursuers  at  least.  But,  to 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar  57 

the  astonishment  of  every  man  in  the  American  frigate,  all 
the  pursuing  ships  tacked  after  the  Levant,  whereupon 
Lieutenant  Ballard  changed  his  course  to  due  west  so  as  to 
regain  the  port,  where  he  succeeded  in  anchoring  under  the 
guns  of  the  fort. 

The  conduct  of  Sir  George  Collier  in  allowing  the  Con 
stitution  and  her  prizes  to  escape  his  powerful  squadron  has 
given  rise  to  many  conflicting  explanations  on  the  part  of 
English  writers.  Some  claim  that  he  did  not  give  the  order 
for  all  the  ships  to  tack  after  the  Levant,  others  that  the 
signal  was  misinterpreted,  while  many  maintain  that  the 
flags  became  entangled. 

It  was  in  gunnery,  however,  that  Americans  attained  their 
most  conspicuous  success.  Long  before  the  War  of  1812 
firing  at  targets  was  a  regular  order  of  routine,  so  that  it 
has  well  been  said  that  for  each  shot  fired  in  earnest  ten 
had  been  fired  in  practice.  The  London  Times  for  October 
22,  1813,  while  speaking  of  the  action  between  the  Enterprise 
and  Boxer,  said : 

What  we  regret  to  perceive  stated,  and  trust  will  be  found 
much  exaggerated,  is,  that  the  Boxer  was  literally  cut  to  pieces  in 
sails,  rigging,  spars,  and  hull;  whilst  the  Enterprise  (her  antag 
onist)  was  in  a  situation  to  commence  a  similar  action  immedi 
ately  afterwards.  The  fact  seems  to  be  but  too  clearly  established, 
that  the  Americans  have  some  superior  mode  of  firing;  and  we 
cannot  be  too  anxiously  employed  in  discovering  to  what  circum 
stances  that  superiority  is  owing. 

Sir  Edward  Codrington,  in  writing  to  Lady  Codrington 
in  reference  to  the  Peacock-Epervier  fight,  states :  "  It 
seems  that  the  Peacock,  American  sloop-of-war,  has  taken 
our  Epervier.  But  the  worst  part  of  our  story  is,  that  our 
sloop  was  cut  to  pieces  and  the  other  scarcely  scratched !  " 


58  A  New  Nation 

The  firing  of  the  44-gun  frigate  United  States,  Captain 
Decatur,  during  her  action  on  October  25,  1812,  with  the 
38-gun  frigate  Macedonian,  Captain  Carden,  is  described  as 
wonderful.  *  The  firing  of  the  American  gunners  was  so 
rapid  that  in  a  few  minutes  their  ship  was  enveloped  in  a 
dense  volume  of  smoke,  which  from  the  enemy's  deck  ap 
peared  like  a  huge  thunder-cloud  rolling  along  the  water, 
illumined  by  lurid  flashes  of  lightning  and  emitting  a  con 
tinuous  roar  of  thunder."  When  the  Macedonian  came  to 
close  quarters  with  the  idea  of  boarding,  "  the  American 
carronades  opened  and  added  their  fire  to  that  of  the  long 
guns,  so  that  by  the  time  she  was  at  close  quarters  the  broad 
side  of  the  United  States  appeared  like  a  continuous  line  of 
flame,  and  at  one  time  the  enemy  believed  her  to  be  on  fire." 


The  fight  between  the  Constitution  and  the  Guerricre. 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar  59 

On  the  1 8th  of  October,  1812,  the  American  sloop  IV asp, 
1 8  guns,  had  a  remarkable  encounter  in  a  heavy  sea  with  the 
British  sloop  Frolic,  19  guns.  In  forty-three  minutes  the 
Wasp  reduced  her  adversary  to  a  wreck,  and  killed  or 
wounded  ninety  out  of  a  crew  of  no  men;  her  own  loss  in 
a  crew  of  135  being  only  ten.  At  the  end  of  the  engagement 
the  British  ship  Poictiers,  seventy-four  guns,  hove  in  sight, 
and  running  down  on  the  Wasp  captured  her  and  her  prize. 

In  an  action,  of  only  twenty  minutes,  between  the  new 
sloop  Wasp  (namesake  of  the  foregoing)  and  the  Reindeer 
on  June  28,  1814,  in  the  English  Channel,  we  are  informed 
that  the  hull  of  the  Reindeer  was  literally  cut  to  pieces.1 
Another  English  writer  observes :  "  In  a  line  with  her  ports 
the  Reindeer  was  literally  cut  to  pieces;  her  upper  works,' 
boats,  and  spare  spars  were  one  complete  wreck.  Her  masts 
were  both  badly  wounded ;  particularly  her  foremast,  which 
was  left  in  a  tottering  state,"  2  and  on  the  following  day,  in 
spite  of  all  efforts,  it  went  by  the  board.  Finding  his  prize 
too  shattered  to  keep  afloat,  Captain  Blakely  blew  her  up. 
The  Wasp  received  six  round  shot  in  her  hull,  and  24- 
pound  shot  through  her  foremast  and  some  injury  to  her 
rigging.  Two  months  after  this  the  Wasp  had  a  night 
action  with  the  Avon,  also  a  sloop-of-war  of  her  own  rate, 
the  Wasp  receiving  only  four  round  shot  in  her  hull  and 
some  inconsiderable  injury  to  her  rigging.  The  fact  that 
the  Avon  sank  two  hours  after  the  Wasp  was  compelled  by 
the  approach  of  her  consorts  to  leave  her  plainly  shows  that 
she  was  terribly  shattered  by  the  American's  gunnery. 

The  proficiency  of  American  gunnery  in  this  w^ar  is  per 
haps  best  illustrated  by  the  Constitution's  first  action,  with 

1  Allen's  "Battles  of  the  British   Navy,"  Vol.   II.,  p    463. 
2 James's  "History  oi  the  British  Navy,''  Vol.  VI.,  p.  163. 


60  A  New  Nation 

the  Guerriere,  in  which  she  was  hulled  but  three  times, 
while  her  antagonist,  to  use  the  words  of  her  commander, 
was  reduced  to  a  "  perfect  wreck  "  1  within  forty  minutes 
from  the  time  the  Constitution  began  to  fire.  This  battle 
occurred  on  August  19,  1812.  In  her  action  with  the  Java, 
December  29,  1812,  off  the  coast  of  Brazil,  the  Constitution 
was  hulled  but  four  times,  and  with  the  exception  of  her 
maintopsail  yard  she  did  not  lose  a  spar.2  The  Java,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  "  totally  dismasted,"  3  while  her  hull  was 
so  shattered  and  pierced  with  shot-holes  that  it  was  impossi 
ble  to  get  her  to  the  harbor  of  San  Salvador,  which  was 
only  a  few  hours'  sail.  In  her  action  with  the  Cyane  and 
Levant  the  forces  opposed  were:  Constitution,  51  guns 
with  1287  pounds  of  metal;  British,  55  guns  with  1508 
pounds  of  metal.  In  this  extraordinary  action  the  Consti 
tution  was  hulled  only  thirteen  times,  while  the  Cyanc  had 
every  brace  and  bow-line  cut  away,  "  her  main  and  mizzen 
masts  left  in  a  tottering  state,  and  other  principal  spars 
wounded,  several  shot  in  the  hull,  nine  or  ten  between  wind 
and  water."  4  The  Levant  also  was  roughly  handled. 

Before  dismissing  the  subject  of  gunnery  we  should  take 
into  consideration:  I.  The  inferior  quality  of  American 
cannon  and  shot.  2.  The  deficiency  in  weight  of  American 
shot.  3.  The  fact  that  in  two  of  the  four  actions  between 
single  frigates  the  English  used  French  cannon  and  shot, 
which  were  eight  per  cent,  heavier  than  their  nominal  Eng 
lish  equivalents. 

Although  American  frigates  in  point  of  effectiveness  were 
superior  to  those  of  the  English,  yet  I  am  persuaded  that 

1  Official  report  of  Captain  Dacres. 

2  Cooper's  "  United  States  Naval  History,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  70. 
s  Allen's  "Battles  of  the  British  Navy,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  414. 

4  James's  "  History  of  the  British  Navy,"  Vol.  VI..  p.  249. 


Laurels  of  the  American  Tar  61 

their  victories  were  due  not  so  much  to  the  vessels  as  to  the 
men  who  manceuvered  and  fought  them. 

It  will  prove  a  matter  of  interest,  at  this  late  day,  to  ob 
serve  with  what  effect  the  news  of  the  first  three  frigate 
actions  with  the  United  States  was  received  in  England. 

The  news  of  the  loss  of  the  Java,  which  arrived  in  Lon 
don,  March  19,  1813,  seems  to  have  drawn  the  following 
resigned  soliloquy  from  the  Times: 

The  public  will  learn  with  sentiments  \vhich  we  shall  not 
presume  to  anticipate  that  a  third  British  frigate  has  struck  to  an 
American.  .  .  .  This  is  an  occurrence  that  calls  for  serious 
reflection  —  this  and  the  fact  stated  in  our  paper  of  yesterday,  that 
Lloyd's  list  contains  notices  of  upwards  of  five  hundred  British 
vessels  captured,  in  seven  months,  by  the  Americans.  Five  hun 
dred  merchantmen,  and  three  frigates?  Can  these  statements  be 
true;  and  can  the  English  people  bear  them  unmoved?  Any  one 
who  had  predicted  such  a  result  of  an  American  war  this  time  last 
year  would  have  been  treated  as  a  madman  or  a  traitor,  lie 
would  have  been  told,  if  his  opponents  had  condescended  to  argue 
with  him,  that  long  ere  seven  months  had  elapsed  the  American 
flag  would  be  swept  from  the  seas,  the  contemptible  navy  of  the 
United  States  annihilated,  and  their  maritime  arsenals  rendered 
a  heap  of  ruins.  Yet  down  to  this  moment  not  a  single  American 
frigate  has  struck  her  flag. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 
BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

When,  in  1814,  Napoleon  was  overthrown  and  forced  to 
retire  to  Elba,  the  British  troops  that  had  followed  Welling 
ton  into  southern  France  \vere  left 
free  for  use  against  the  Americans. 
A  great  expedition  was  organized 
to  attack  and  capture  New  Orleans, 
and  at  its  head  was  placed  General 
Pakenham,  the  brilliant  commander 
of  the  column  that  delivered  the 
fatal  blow  at  Salamanca.  In  De 
cember  a  fleet  of  British  war-ships 
and  transports,  carrying  thousands 
of  victorious  veterans  from  the  Pen 
insula,  and  manned  by  sailors  who 
Andrew  Jackson. 

had   grown  old   in   a   quarter   of   a 

century's  triumphant  ocean  warfare,  anchored  off  the  broad 
lagoons  of  the  Mississippi  delta.  The  few  American  gun 
boats  were  carried  after  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  strug 
gle,  the  troops  were  landed,  and  on  December  23  the  ad 
vance-guard  of  two  thousand  men  reached  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  but  ten  miles  below  New  Orleans,  and  there 
camped  for  the  night. 

It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  save  the  Creole  City  from 
foes  who  had  shown,  in  the  storming  of  many  a  Spanish 

62 


The  Battle  of  New  Orleans  63 

walled  town,  that  they  were  as  ruthless  in  victory  as  they 
were  terrible  in  battle.  There  were  not  forts  to  protect  the 
place,  and  the  militia  were  ill  armed  and  ill  trained.  But 
the  hour  found  the  man.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  very  day 
when  the  British  reached  the  banks  of  the  river  the  van 
guard  of  Andrew  Jackson's  Tennesseeans  marched  into  New 
Orleans.  Clad  in  hunting-shirts  of  buckskin  or  homespun, 
wearing  wolfskin  and  coonskin  caps,  and  carrying  their  long 
rifles  on  their  shoulders,  the  w7ild  soldiery  of  the  backwoods 
tramped  into  the  little  French  town.  They  were  tall  men, 
with  sinewy  frames  and  piercing  eyes.  Under  "  Old  Hick 
ory's  "  lead  they  had  won  the  bloody  battle  of  the  Horseshoe 
Bend  against  the  Creeks ;  they  had  driven  the  Spaniards 
from  Pensacola ;  and  now  they  were  eager  to  pit  themselves 
against  the  most  renowned  troops  of  all  Europe. 

Jackson  acted  with  his  usual  fiery,  hasty  decision.  It 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  get  time  in  which  to  throw  up 
some  kind  of  breastworks  or  defenses  for  the  city,  and  he 
at  once  resolved  on  a  night  attack  against  the  British.  As 
for  the  British,  they  had  no  thought  of  being  molested. 
They  did  not  dream  of  an  assault  from  inferior  numbers 
of  undisciplined  and  ill-armed  militia,  who  did  not  possess 
so  much  as  bayonets  to  their  guns.  They  kindled  fires  along 
the  levees,  ate  their  supper,  and  then,  as  the  evening  fell, 
noticed  a  big  schooner  drop  down  the  river  in  ghostly  silence 
and  bring  up  opposite  to  them.  The  soldiers  flocked  to  the 
shore,  challenging  the  stranger,  and  finally  fired  one  or  two 
shots  at  her.  Then  suddenly  a  rough  voice  was  heard, 
"  Now7  give  it  to  them,  for  the  honor  of  America!  "  and  a 
shower  of  shell  and  grape  fell  on  the  British,  driving  them 
off  the  levee.  The  stranger  was  an  American  man-of-war 
schooner.  The  British  brought  up  artillery  to  drive  her 


64  A  New  Nation 

off,  but  before  they  succeeded  Jackson's  land  troops  burst 
upon  them,  and  a  fierce,  indecisive  struggle  followed.  In 
the  night  all  order  was  speedily  lost,  and  the  two  sides 
fought  singly  or  in  groups  in  the  utmost  confusion.  Fi 
nally  a  fog  came  up  and  the  combatants  separated.  Jackson 
drew  off  four  or  five  miles  and  camped. 

The  British  had  been  so  roughly  handled  that  they  were 
unable  to  advance  for  three  or  four  days,  until  the  entire 
army  came  up.  When  they  did  advance,  it  was  only  to 
find  that  Jackson  had  made  good  use  of  the  time  he  had 
gained  by  his  daring  assault.  He  had  thrown  up  breast 
works  of  mud  and  logs  from  the  swamp  to  the  river.  At 
first  the  British  tried  to  batter  down  these  breastworks  with 
their  cannon,  for  they  had  many  more  guns  than  the  Ameri 
cans.  A  terrible  artillery  duel  followed.  For  an  hour 
or  two  the  result  seemed  in  doubt ;  but  the  Ameri 
can  gunners  showed  themselves  to  be  far  more  skilful  than 
their  antagonists,  and  gradually  getting  the  upper  hand, 
they  finally  silenced  every  piece  of  British  artillery.  The 
Americans  had  used  cotton  bales  in  the  embrasures,  and  the 
British  hogsheads  of  sugar;  but  neither  worked  well,  for 
the  cotton  caught  fire  and  the  sugar  hogsheads  were  ripped 
and  splintered  by  the  round-shot,  so  that  both  were  aban 
doned.  By  the  use  of  red-hot  shot  the  British  succeeded  in 
setting  on  fire  the  American  schooner  which  had  caused  them 
such  annoyance  on  the  evening  of  the  night  attack ;  but  she 
had  served  her  purpose,  and  her  destruction  caused  little 
anxiety  to  Jackson. 

Having  failed  in  his  effort  to  batter  down  the  American 
breastworks,  and  the  British  artillery  having  been  fairly 
worsted  by  the  American,  Pakenham  decided  to  try  open 
assault.  He  had  ten  thousand  regular  troops,  while  Jackson 


The  Battle  of  New  Orleans 


had  under  him  but  little  over  five  thousand  men,  who  were 
trained  only  as  he  had  himself  trained  them  in  his  Indian 
campaigns.  Not  a  fourth  of  them  carried  bayonets.  Both 
Pakenham  and  the  troops  under  him  were  fresh  irom  vic 
tories  won  over  the  most  renowned  marshals  of  Napoleon, 
and  over  soldiers  that  had  proved  themselves  on  a  hundred 
stricken  fields  the  masters  of  all  others  in  Continental  Eu 
rope.  At  Toulouse  they  had  driven  Marshal  Soult  from  a 
position  infinitely  stronger  than  that  held  by  Jackson,  and 
yet  Soult  had  under  him  a  veteran  army.  At  Badajoz, 
Ciudad  Rodrigo,  and  San  Sebastian  they  had  carried  by 
open  assault  fortified  towns  whose  strength  made  the  in- 
trenchments  of  the  Americans  seem  like  the  mud  walls  built 
by  children,  though  these  towns 
were  held  by  the  best  soldiers  of 
France.  With  such  troops  to 
follow  him,  and  with  such  victo 
ries  behind  him  in  the  past,  it  did 
not  seem  possible  to  Pakenham 
that  the  assault  of  the  terrible 
British  infantry  could  be  success 
fully  met  by  rough  backwoods 
riflemen  fighting  under  a  general 
as  wild  and  untrained  as  them 
selves. 

He  decreed  that  the  assault 
should  take  place  on  the  morning 
of  the  eighth.  Throughout  the 
previous  night  the  American  offi 
cers  were  on  the  alert,  for  they  could  hear  the  rumbling 
of  artillery  in  the  British  camp,  the  muffled  tread  of  the  bat 
talions  as  they  were  marched  to  their  points  in  the  line,  and 


Monument  commemorating 
the  battle  of  New  Or 
leans. 


66  A  New  Nation 

all  the  smothered  din  of  the  preparation  for  assault.  Long 
before  dawn  the  riflemen  were  awake  and  drawn  up  he- 
hind  the  mud  walls,  where  they  lolled  at  ease,  or,  leaning 
on  their  long  rifles,  peered  out  through  the  fog  toward  the 
camp  of  their  foes.  At  last  the  sun  rose  and  the  fog 
lifted,  showing  the  scarlet  array  of  the  splendid  British  in 
fantry.  As  soon  as  the  air  was  clear  Pakenham  gave  the 
word,  and  the  heavy  columns  of  red-coated  grenadiers  and 
kilted  Highlanders  moved  steadily  forward.  From  the 
American  breastworks  the  great  guns  opened,  but  not  a 
rifle  cracked.  Three- fourths  of  the  distance  was  covered, 
and  the  eager  soldiers  broke  into  a  run;  then  sheets  of  flame 
burst  from  the  breastworks  in  their  front  as  the  wild  rifle 
men  of  the  backwoods  rose  and  fired,  line  upon  line.  Un 
der  the  sweeping  hail  the  head  of  the  British  advance  was 
shattered,  and  the  whole  column  stopped.  Then  it  surged 
forward  again,  almost  to  the  foot  of  the  breastworks;  but 
not  a  man  lived  to  reach  them,  and  in  a  moment  more  the 
troops  broke  and  ran  back.  Mad  with  shame  and  rage, 
Pakenham  rode  among  them  to  rally  and  lead  them  for 
ward,  and  the  officers  sprang  around  him,  smiting  the  fugi 
tives  with  their  swords  and  cheering  on  the  men  who  stood. 
For  a  moment  the  troops  halted,  and  again  came  forward 
to  the  charge;  but  again  they  were  met  by  a  hail  of  bullets 
from  the  backwoods  rifles.  One  shot  struck  Pakenham 
himself.  He  reeled  and  fell  from  the  saddle,  and  was  car 
ried  off  the  field.  The  second  and  third  in  command  fell 
also,  and  then  all  attempts  at  further  advance  were  aban 
doned,  and  the  British  troops  ran  back  to  their  lines.  An 
other  assault  had  meanwhile  been  made  by  a  column  close 
to  the  river,  the  charging  soldiers  rushing  to  the  top  of  the 
breastworks;  but  they  were  all  killed  or  driven  back.  A 


The  Battle  of  New  Orleans 


67 


body  of  troops  had  also  been  sent  across  the  river,  where 
they  routed  a  small  detachment  of  Kentucky  militia ;  but 
they  were,  of  course,  recalled  when  the  main  assault  failed. 
At  last  the  men  who  had  conquered  the  conquerors  of 
Europe  had  themselves  met  defeat.  Andrew  Jackson  and 
his  rough  riflemen  had  worsted,  in  fair  fight,  a  far  larger 
force  of  the  best  of  AYellington's  veterans,  and  had  accom 
plished  what  no  French  marshal  and  no  French  troops  had 
been  able  to  accomplish  throughout  the  long  war  in  the 
Spanish  peninsula.  For  a  week  the  sullen  British  lay  in 
their  lines;  then,  abandoning  their  heavy  artillery,  they 
marched  back  to  the  ships  and  sailed  for  Europe. 


'-  :r 


:,^^5=4*e3 

Street  in  old  New  Orleans. 


THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER 

'  The  Star-Spangled  Banner  "  was  written  during  the 
war  with  Great  Britain,  which  is  generally  spoken  of  in  his 
tory  as  the  War  of  1812.  The  British  forces  had  captured 
the  city  of  Washington  and  destroyed  its  public  buildings, 
and  were  preparing  to  attack  Baltimore.  Francis  Scott  Key, 
a  patriotic  American,  and,  at  the  time,  a  citizen  of  Wash 
ington,  wrote  to  his  mother,  on  the  2d  of  September,  1814: 

.  .  .  I  am  going  in  the  rooming  to  Baltimore,  to  proceed  in 
a  flag-vessel  to  General  Ross.  Old  Dr.  Beanes,  of  Marlboro,  is 
taken  prisoner  by  the  enemy,  who  threaten  to  carry  him  off. 
Some  of  his  friends  have  urged  me  to  apply  for  a  flag  and  go  to 
try  to  procure  his  release.  I  hope  to  return  in  about  eight  or 
ten  days,  tho'  it  is  uncertain,  as  I  do  not  know  where  to  find  the 
fleet.  .  .  .  God  bless  you,  my  dear  mother. 

F.  S.  KEY. 

The  President,  James  Madison,  granted  Mr.  Key  per 
mission  to  go,  and  he  went  with  a  friend  in  a  cartel-ship  * 
under  a  flag  of  truce.  They  found  the  British  fleet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Potomac,  preparing  to  attack  Baltimore. 

The  British  admiral  agreed  to  release  Dr.  Beanes,  but 
refused  to  let  him  or  his  friends  return  that  night.  They 
were  placed  on  board  of  another  vessel,  where  they  were 
carefully  guarded,  to  prevent  them  from  communicating 

1  Cartel,  or  cartel-ship:  A  ship  used  in  making  the  exchange  of 
prisoners  of  war,  or  in  carrying  propositions  to  an  enemy,  it  is  a 
ship  of  truce,  and  must  not  be  fired  upon  nor  captured. 

68 


The  Star-Spangled  Banner  69 

with  their  countrymen  concerning  the  proposed  attack.  The 
vessel  was  anchored  within  sight  of  Fort  McHenry,  which 
the  British  fleet  proceeded  to  bombard. 


Francis  Scoti  Key  writing  "  The  Star-Spangled 
Banner." 

The  three  Americans  were  compelled  to  endure  all  night 
long  the  anxiety  of  mind  produced  by  the  cannonade;  and 
they  had  no  means  of  knowing  the  result  of  the  attack,  until 
"  the  dawn's  early  light."  They  waited  that  dawn  with  the 


yo  A  New  Nation 

most  intense   feeling.     When  it  came,  they  saw  with  joy 
that  "  the  old  flag  was  still  there." 

It  was  during  this  bombardment  that  Key,  pacing  the  deck 
of  the  vessel,  composed  that  immortal  song,  "  The  Star- 
Spangled  Banner."  The  rude,  first  draught  of  it  was  writter 
on  the  back  of  a  letter,  and  he  wrote  it  out  at  full  length  or 
his  arrival  in  Baltimore.  Soon  after,  it  was  printed,  and 
at  once  became  exceedingly  popular.  It  was  sung  every 
where,  in  public  and  private,  and  created  intense  enthusiasm. 
Although  the  famous  song  is  no  doubt  well  known,  we  here 
reprint  it  in  full,  as  it  was  originally  written  by  Mr.  Key : 

THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER 

O  say  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 

What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight's  last  gleaming; 
Whose  broad  stripes  and  bright  stars  thro'  the  perilous  fight 
O'er  the  ramparts  we  watched  were  so  gallantly  streaming; 
And  the  rockets'  red  glare,  the  bombs  bursting  in  air. 
Gave  proof  through  the  night  that  our  flag  was  still  there ; 
O  say  does  that  star-spangled  banner  yet  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave? 

From  the  shore  dimly  seen  thro'  the  mists  of  the  deep, 

Where  the  foe's  haughty  host  in  dread  silence  reposes, 

What  is  that  which  the  breeze  o'er  the  towering  steep, 

As  it  fitfully  blows,  half  conceals,  half  discloses? 
Now  it  catches  the  gleam  of  the  morning's  first  beam, 
In  full  glory  reflected  now  shines  in  the  stream ; 
'T  is  the  star-spangled  banner  !  —  O  long  may  it  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave. 

And  where  is  that  band  who  so  vauntingly  swore 
That  the  havoc  of  war  and  the  battle's  confusion 

A  home  and  a  country  should  leave  us  no  more  ? 

Their  blood  has  washed  out  their  foul  footsteps'  pollution. 


The  Star-Spangled  Banner  71 

No  refuge  could  save  the  hireling  and  slave 
From  the  terror  of  flight  or  the  gloom  of  the  grave; 
And  the  star-spangled  banner  in  triumph  doth  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave. 

And  thus  be  it  ever,  when  freemen  shall  stand 

Between  their  loved  homes  and  the  war's  desolation ; 
Blest  with  vict'ry  and  peace  may  this  Heaven-rescued  land 

Praise  the  POWER  that  hath  made  and  preserved  us  a  nation. 
Then  conquer  w-e  must,  when  our  cause  it  is  just, 
And  this  be  our  motto:     "  IN  GOD  is  OUR  TRUST"; 
And  the  star-spangled  banner,  O  long  may  it  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave. 


ROBBERS  OF  THE  SEAS 
BY  ERNEST  INGERSOL 

As  the  sea  has  furnished 
opportunities  for  so  much 
good, —  for  manly  exer 
tion,  knowledge  of  the 
world,  and  acquaintance 
with  people  outside  of 
one's  own  country,  and 
for  gaining  wealth, —  so 
it  has  given  a  chance  for 
unscrupulous  men  to  show 
the  worst  that  is  in  them ; 
and  the  guarding  of  shore 
towns  and  merchant  ves 
sels  from  piratical  attacks 
/  ""  has  always  been  a  part  of 

the  usefulness  and  duty  of  a  nation's  naval  force. 

As  on  land  there  are  robbers  and  highwaymen,  so  on  the 
ocean  robber  ships  have  often  been  lying  in  wait  for  vessels 
loaded  with  treasure,  and  have  landed  crews  of  marauders 
to  make  havoc  with  rich  seaboard  provinces.  Such  rob 
bers  on  the  high  seas  are  termed  pirates,  and  their  crime 
was  visited  by  the  old  la\vs  with  torturing  punishments ; 
yet  they  were  never  more  daring  than  when  the  laws  against 
them  were  severest. 

The  word  is  Greek,  and  the  first  pirates  who  figure  in 

72 


Robbers  of  the  Seas  73 

history  are  those  of  the  Greek  and  Byzantine  islands  and 
coasts  —  bloody  ruffians  who  originated  the  amusing  method 
of  disposing  of  unransomed  prisoners  by  making  them 
"  walk  the  plank,"  as  has  been  done  within  the  present  cen 
tury. 


Walking  the  plank. 

The  intricate  channels  and  hidden  harbors  of  the 
Sea  long  remained  a  hiding-place  of  sea-robbers,  and  are 
still  haunted  by  them,  though  every  few  years,  from 
Caesar's  time  till  now,  the  kings  of  the  surrounding  countries 


74  A  New  Nation 

have  sent  expeditions  to  break  them  in.  In  the  sixteenth 
century  piracy  in  that  region  was  especially  prevalent.  The 
crews  then  were  chiefly  Turkish,  but  the  great  leaders  were 
two  renegade  Greeks,  the  brothers  Aruck  and  Hayradin 
Barbarossa  ("  Redbeard  "). 

After  their  time  the  power  of  the  pirates  continued  un 
der  other  leaders;  and  not  Algeria  alone,  but  Tripoli, 
Morocco,  and  even  Tunis,  harbored  piratical  vessels  in  every 
port,  and  the  rulers  shared  their  spoils ;  piracy,  indeed,  was 
the  source  of  their  national  revenues,  and  was  encouraged 
by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  inasmuch  as  all  these  states  were 
his  vassals. 

Every  few  years  some  European  power  —  Spain,  France, 
Venice,  or  England  —  would  lose  patience,  send  a  fleet, 
and  open  a  campaign  that  would  be  successful  in  destroy 
ing  certain  strongholds,  releasing  a  crowd  of  prisoners, 
and  burning  or  sinking  many  ships.  The  city  of  Algiers  was 
bombarded  almost  into  ruins  in  1682,  and  the  job  completed 
a  year  later,  after  the  Algerians  had  tossed  the  French  consul 
out  to  the  fleet,  with  their  compliments,  from  the  mouth  of  a 
mortar.  They  were  fond  of  such  jokes.  Nevertheless,  the 
city  speedily  recovered,  and  piracy,  complicated  by  Moslem 
fanaticism  and  Turkish  politics,  harassed  commerce  during 
all  the  next  century,  partly  because  Europe  was  so  busy  in 
its  own  wars  that  it  had  no  time  for  outside  matters,  and 
partly  because  it  was  for  the  advantage  of  certain  nations 
(particularly  of  Great  Britain,  which,  in  possession  of 
Gibraltar  and  Port  Mahon,  might  have  suppressed  this 
villainy)  to  let  the  corsairs  prey  upon  its  foes  —  especially 
France.  The  actual  result  was  that  most  or  all  of  the 
European  powers  fell  into  the  custom  of  paying  to  Algiers, 
Tunis,  Tripoli,  and  other  rulers  of  the  Barbary  (or  Berber) 


Robbers  of  the  Seas  75 

States  large  sums  of  money  as  annual  tribute  to  restrain 
them  from  official  depredations  upon  their  coasts  and  com 
merce,  besides  other  large  payments  for  the  ransom  of  such 
Christian  prisoners  as  each  sultan's  lively  subjects  continued 
to  take  in  spite  of  treaties. 

In  this  shameful  condition  of  affairs  the  newly  independ 
ent  United  States  was  obliged  to  join  during  the  first  years 
of  its  existence,  to  secure  immunity  tor  our  commerce  in  the 
Mediterranean,  because  we  had  not  yet  had  time  to  create 
a  navy.  By  the  end  of  the  century,  however,  the  United 
States  was  able  to  defend  itself  at  sea,  and  in  1801  an 
swered  the  insults  of  Tripoli  by  bombarding  its  capital  sea 
port  until  the  dey  sued  for  mercy  and  promised  to  behave 
himself.  Nevertheless,  he  needed  another  lesson,  and  in 
1803  a  second  American  fleet  was  sent  to  the  Mediterranean, 
commanded  by  Preble,  in  the  Constitution,  with  such  sub 
ordinate  officers  as  Bainbridge,  Decatur,  Somers,  Hull, 
Stewart,  Lawrence,  and  others  that  later  became  famous. 
One  incident  of  this  campaign,  which  began  by  frightening 
the  Sultan  of  Morocco  at  Tangier  into  abject  submission, 
but  was  especially  directed  against  Tripoli,  is  well  worth 
remembering. 

Captain  Bainbridge,  going  alone  in  the  fine  frigate  Phila 
delphia  into  the  harbor  of  the  city  of  Tripoli,  had  unfortu 
nately  run  aground,  and  there,  overpowered  by  the  number 
of  his  enemies  afloat  and  ashore,  had  been  compelled  to  give 
up  his  ship,  and  find  himself  and  all  his  crew  taken  prisoners. 
He  managed  to  get  word  of  his  misfortune  to  Commodore 
Preble  at  Malta,  and  that  officer  at  once  took  his  fleet  to 
Tripoli  —  Decatur,  in  the  Argus,  gallantly  capturing  on  the 
way  one  of  the  great  lateen-sailed  piratical  crafts  of  the 
enemy,  which  later  proved  a  useful  instrument  in  the  contest. 


A  Pirate  Fight. 


Robbers  of  the  Seas  77 

The  fleet  blockaded  Tripoli  for  a  while,  and  shelled  the 
fortifications  somewhat,  just  to  give  the  bashaw  a  hint,  and 
to  encourage  the  poor  prisoners ;  but  none  of  the  big  vessels 
was  able  to  enter  the  narrow,  tortuous,  and  ill-charted  har 
bor  in  the  face  of  the  many  batteries,  under  whose  guns  the 
Philadelphia  could  be  seen  at  anchor  with  the  Tripolitan  flag 
at  her  main,  so  they  sailed  away  to  Syracuse  to  make  prep 
arations  for  reducing  this  nest  of  barbarians.  Gunboats 
of  light  draft  and  mortar-vessels  had  to  be  fitted  out;  but 
the  first  thing  was  to  try  to  carry  out  a  plan  that  Decatur 
and  all  his  friends  had  been  maturing  ever  since  they  had 
arrived  —  the  destruction  of  the  Philadelphia,  not  only  be 
cause  she  had  been  refitted  into  a  powerful  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  but  because  it  was  galling  to  national 
as  well  as  naval  pride  to  see  her  flying  a  foreign  flag.  The 
plan  was  this : 

Decatur  was  to  take  a  picked  crew  of  seventy  officers  and 
men  on  the  captured  felucca  (renamed  Intrepid),  and  at 
tempt  at  night  to  penetrate  to  the  inner  harbor  of  Tripoli  in 
the  disguise  of  a  trader,  supported  as  well  as  possible  by  the 
gun-brig  Siren,  also  disguised  as  a  merchantman.  As  his 
pilot  was  an  Italian  and  a  competent  linguist,  it  was  hoped 
the  ketch  could  get  near  enough  to  set  fire  to  the  ship,  whirl 
a  shotted  deck-gun  into  position  to  send  a  shell  down  the 
main  hatch  and  through  her  bottom,  fire  it,  and  escape  before 
the  surprise  was  over.  The  chances  of  failure  were  enough 
to  daunt  the  bravest,  yet  every  man  in  the  fleet  wanted  to 
go. 

On  February  15,  1804,  Decatur  in  his  felucca,  and  Somers 
commanding  the  brig,  found  themselves,  towards  evening, 
again  in  sight  of  the  town,  with  its  circle  of  forts  crowned 
by  the  frowning  castle.  The  great  Philadelphia  stood  out 


78  A  New  Nation 

in  bold  relief,  closely  surrounded  by  two  frigates  and  more 
than  twenty  gunboats  and  galleys.  From  the  castle  and 
batteries  1 1 5  guns  could  be  trained  upon  an  attacking  force, 
besides  the  fire  of  the  vessels,  yet  the  bold  tars  on  the  Intrepid 
did  not  quail. 

The  crew  having  been  sent  below,  the  pilot  Catalona  took 
the  wheel,  while  Decatur  stood  beside  him,  disguised  as  a 
common  sailor.  It  was  now  nine  o'clock,  and  bright  moon 
light.  Standing  steadily  in,  they  rounded  to  close  by  the 
Philadelphia,  and,  boldly  hailing  her  deck-watch,  asked  the 
privilege  of  mooring  to  her  chains  for  the  night,  explaining 
that  they  had  lost  their  anchors  in  the  late  storm,  and  so 
forth,  until  at  last  consent  was  given. 

Having  dragged  themselves  close  to  the  frigate,  it  was  the 
work  of  only  a  moment  to  board  her  with  a  rush,  overpower 
her  surprised  crew,  and  make  sure  of  her  destruction  by 
means  of  the  combustibles  and  powder  they  had  brought  with 
them.  Before  their  task  was  done,  however,  they  had  been 
discovered,  and  it  is  almost  a  miracle  that  they  were  able  to 
return  to  their  felucca,  and  make  their  way  out  of  the  harbor, 
through  a  rain  of  harmless  cannon-balls ;  yet  they  did  so,  and 
Decatur  was  justly  honored  for  one  of  the  most  gallant  ex 
ploits  in  naval  annals. 

A  few  weeks  later  Preble's  squadron  shelled  the  pirate  city 
and  fortresses  into  ruin,  forced  Tripoli  as  well  as  Algiers  and 
Tunis  to  respect  then  and  thenceforth  the  American  flag,  and 
gave  these  arrogant  rulers  the  new  sensation  of  paying  in 
stead  of  receiving  money  for  bad  deeds.  It  put  an  end  to 
the  corsairs. 

First  Santo  Domingo,  then  Tortugas,  and  finally  Jamaica 
were  headquarters  of  the  buccaneers,  who  were  made  up  of 
men  of  all  nations,  united  by  a  desire  to  prey  upon  Spain  as 


Robbers  of  the  Seas 


79 


a  common  enemy.  They  were  thousands  in  number,  pos 
sessed  large  fleets  of  ships  and  boats,  were  well  armed,  and 
finally  formed  a  regular  organization  with  a  chief  and 
under-officers.  The  most  noted  of  these  chiefs,  perhaps, 
was  Henry  Morgan,  a  Welshman,  who  was  at  one  time 
captured  and  taken  home  to  England  for  trial.  To  his  own 
surprise,  instead  of  being  executed,  he  was  knighted  by 
Charles  II,  who  had  not  been  at  all  grieved  at  seeing  Spanish 


The  chief  buccaneer  dividing  the  booty. 


8o  A  New  Nation 

commerce  harassed;  and  Morgan  was  returned  to  Jamaica 
as  commissioner  of  admiralty,  where  at  one  time  he  acted 
as  deputy  governor,  using  his  opportunity  to  make  it  un 
pleasant  for  those  of  the  buccaneers  with  whom  he  had 
formerly  disagreements  as  to  the  distribution  of  prizes. 

At  last  even  England  and  France,  after  secretly  favoring 
the  buccaneers,  became  roused  to  the  necessity  of  controlling 
them,  and  it  was  with  this  object  in  view  that  a  certain 
Captain  William  Kidd  was  fitted  out  at  private  expense  to 
ward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  armed  with 
King  William's  commission  for  seizing  pirates  and  making 
reprisals,  England  being  at  war  with  France.  Just  why  it 
was,  nobody  has  explained,  but  Captain  Kidd  spent  his  time 
in  loitering  around  the  coast  of  Africa,  where  no  pirates 
were  to  be  found,  until  he  grew  quite  disheartened,  and,  fear 
ing  to  be  dismissed  by  his  employers  and  to  be  "  mark'd  out 
for  an  unlucky  man,"  he  started  a  little  pirate  business  for 
himself,  in  which  he  gained  more  of  a  certain  kind  of  fame 
than  any  of  the  rest;  for  popular  tradition  supposes  him  to 
have  hoarded  his  booty  and  buried  it.  "  Captain  Kidd's 
treasure  "  has  been  sought  for  until  the  whole  eastern  coast 
of  the  United  States  is  honeycombed  with  diggings  for  it: 
but  probably  he  had  eaten  and  drunk  it  up  before  1701, 
when  he  was  captured  and  executed  in  England.  About  this 
time,  however,  and  without  his  valuable  aid,  the  combined 
naval  forces  of  all  the  nations  interested  in  the  commerce 
of  the  New  World  broke  the  power  of  the  buccaneers,  and 
their  depredations  ceased.  Their  story  is  one  of  the  wildest, 
most  romantic,  and  most  terrible  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

The  trade  of  piracy  was  carried  on  during  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  region  of  the  West  Indies  by  unorganized 
bands  of  desperados  who  had  all  the  faults  and  none  of  the 


Buccaneers  Landing  Treasure. 


82  A  New  Nation 

greatness  of  the  men  they  succeeded,  and  who  received  little 
attention  from  the  world  at  large.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  Barataria  pirates  came  into  notice 
on  the  coast  of  Louisiana,  taking  the  place  of  the  buccaneers, 
but  in  a  much  smaller  way.  Their  leaders,  Pierre  and  John 
Lafitte,  carried  on  business  quite  openly  in  New  Orleans ;  and 
their  settlements  on  the  marshy  islands  along  the  coast,  and 
their  "  temple,"  to  which  persons  came  out  from  the  city  to 
buy  goods,  were  open  secrets.  But  in  the  War  of  1812,  al 
though  the  British  tried  to  buy  their  services,  they  redeemed 
themselves  by  standing  true  to  the  American  government, 
which  had  just  been  trying  to  exterminate  them,  and  so  they 
won  public  pardon  and  an  added  glamour  of  romance. 

There  is  a  form  of  sea-roving  which  has  been  at  times  not 
very  different  from  piracy ;  it  is  called  privateering,  and  his 
tory  shows  a  good  many  cases  where  it  has  degenerated  into 
sea-robbery  pure  and  simple. 

A  privateer  is  a  ship,  owned  by  a  private  citizen  or  citizens, 
to  which  authority  is  given  by  a  government  to  act  as  an  in 
dependent  war-vessel.  Its  commission  is  called  a  "  letter 
of  marque"  (lettre  de  marque  in  French),  entitling  it  to 
"  take,  burn,  and  destroy  "  a  certain  enemy's  property  on 
the  sea  or  in  its  ports.  It  has  no  right,  of  course,  to  attack 
any  one  else. 

The  object  and  plea  of  the  government  issuing  com 
missions  to  privateers  is  that  thus  a  great  many  more  armed 
vessels  can  be  sent  afloat  than  the  government  has  money  to 
equip,  and  that  consequently  far  more  damage  will  be  done  to 
the  enemy,  by  crippling  his  trade  and  resources,  than  regular 
men-of-war  alone  can  accomplish.  Private  capital  has  been 
willing  to  take  the  risk  because  rewarded  by  a  large  share  of 
the  prizes ;  and  from  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  to  the  middle  of 


Robbers  of  the  Seas  83 

the  eighteenth  century  this  was  one  of  the  most  profitable 
of  marine  industries,  for  then  nearly  universal  wars  made 
almost  any  capture  legitimate.  In  the  earlier  times  even  the 
limited  regulation  that  came  later  was  absent,  and  there  was 
small  choice  between  a  privateer  and  a  pirate. 


THE  BALLAD  OF  CAPTAIN  KIDD 

[The  following  are  a  few  of  the  many  verses  of  a  ballad  written  at 
the  time  of  Capt.  Kidd.] 

My  name  was  Robert  Kidd,  as  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed, 
My  name  was  Robert  Kidd,  as  I  sailed ; 
My  name  was  Robert  Kidd, 
God's  laws  I  did  forbid, 
And  so  wickedly  I  did,  as  I  sailed. 

I  was  sick,  and  nigh  to  death,  as  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed; 
I  was  sick  and  nigh  to  death  as  I  sailed; 
I  was  sick  and  nigh  to  death, 
And  I  vowed  at  every  breath, 
To  walk  in  wisdom's  ways,  as  I  sailed. 

I  thought  I  was  undone,  as  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed; 
I  thought  I  was  undone,  as  I  sailed; 

I  thought  I  was  undone, 

And  my  wicked  glass  had  run, 
But  health  did  soon  return,  as  I  sailed. 


Captain  Kidd  burying  his  treasure. 


Robbers  of  the  Seas  85 

I  spied  the  ships  of  Spain,  as  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed; 
1  spied  the  ships  of  Spain,  as  I  sailed; 

I  spied  the  ships  of  Spain, 

I  fired  on  them  amain, 
Till  most  of  them  were  slain,  as  I  sailed. 

I  'd  ninety  bars  of  gold,  as  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed ; 
I  'd  ninety  bars  of  gold,  as  I  sailed ; 
I  'd  ninety  bars  of  gold, 
And   dollars   manifold, 
\Yith  riches  uncontrolled,  as  I  sailed. 

Thus  being  o'ertaken  at  last,  I  must  die,  I  must  die; 
Thus  being  o'ertaken  at  last,  I  must  die; 

Thus  being  o'ertaken  at  last 

And  into  prison  cast. 
And  sentence  being  passed,  I  must  die. 


OLD  GEORGETOWN 


BY  JOHN  WILLIAMSON  PALMER 

When  the  author  of  "  The  Star-spangled  Banner " 
emerged  from  his  quiet  domicile  by  the  Aqueduct,  and  wen: 
for  a  pensive  ramble,  as  was  his  custom  of  an  afternoon, 
he  mounted  the  winding  way  to  the  heights  of  Georgetown 
to  find  a  point  of  vantage  there  for  his  more  comprehensive 
contemplation  of  the  prospect. 

Very  dear  to  the  eye  of  that  pensive  singer  of  piety  and 
patriotism  were  the  several  landmarks  that  loomed  impress 
ively  above  the  river  mists. 

Between  the  Convent  and  the  creek  the  heights  were 
crowned  with  the  mansions  of  prosperous  and  influential 
citizens  whose  names  are  locally  historic  now:  "  Monterey," 
seat  of  the  Linthicums,  occupied  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  then  Sec 
retary  of  War  in  the  Monroe  cabinet;  "Tudor  Place,"  the 
garden  home  of  Thomas  Peter,  Esq.,  notable  in  the  annals 
of  Georgetown;  the  storied  residence  of  Brooke  Williams, 
once  tenanted  by  Sir  John  Crampton,  British  ambassador, 
and  later  by  the  French  minister ;  and  other  houses  of  much 
social  celebrity. 

Low  on  the  incline,  but  slowly  creeping  hillward  from  the 
river,  the  quaint  and  kindly  burgh  looked  idly  out  through 
dormer-windows  on  a  lounging,  drowsy  world,  and  sociably 
shouldered  the  highway  with  all  its  stoops  and  sloping  cellar 

86 


Old  Georgetown  87 

doors ;  and  comfortable  little  boys  and  girls,  unembarrassed 
by  considerations  of  decorum,  and  careless  of  rents  and 
maternal  rages,  slid  down  the  cellar  doors,  and  watched  the 
world  go  by  —  a  world  of  shad-fishers,  and  fowlers  of 
swans  and  ducks,  and  pliers  of  pirogues  1  and  pungies ;  a 
world  wherein  the  market-master  and  the  hay-weigher,  the 
constable  and  the  town-crier,  the  watchman  and  the  lamp 
lighter,  were  personages  of  exalted  privileges  and  mysteri 
ous  powers ;  where  a  black  Juliet,  gaudily  coifed  in  bandana, 
and  hoop-ringed  as  to  her  ears,  who  dispensed  English 
muffins  to  the  outcry  of  a  bell,  and  a  blacker  Romeo,  amply 
aproned,  who  chanted  on  street  corners  the  succulent  glories 
of  hot  corn  and  baked  pears,  were  ever  the  chroniclers,  con 
fidants,  and  oracles  for  the  children,  white  or  black,  on  Key 
and  Congress  streets  and  the  Causeway,  on  Bridge  and 
Falls  streets,  West  Landing  and  Duck  Lane. 

A  characteristic  feature  of  the  time  and  place  was  the 
Conestoga  wagon,  freighted  with  farm  produce  from 
Pennsylvania,  ark-like  under  its  long  tunnel  of  canvas,  and 
drawn  by  five  or  seven  big,  benevolent  horses,  each  with  a 
chime  of  bells  making  melodious  announcement  of  butter, 
eggs,  and  fowls,  garden  truck,  sauerkraut,  schmierkase,  and 
apple-butter ;  and  always  a  hen-coop  hung  at  the  stern,  and 
a  dog,  ill-favored  and  unsociable,  trotted  between  the  hind 
wheels. 

No  less  characteristic  and  picturesque  was  the  pier,  the 
landing-place  for  the  lighter  craft  that  flitted  beween  the 
river-landings  in  excursions  of  business  or  pleasure.  Hither 

1  G.  W.  P.  Custis,  in  his  "  Recollections  and  Private  Memoirs,"  de 
scribes  the  "  pirogue "  in  which  Washington,  with  a  party  of  his 
friends,  made  the  first  survey  of  the  Potomac  above  tide-water,  as 
a  canoe  "  hollowed  out  of  a  great  poplar  tree,  hauled  on  a  wagon  to 
the  bank  of  the  Monocacy,  and  there  launched." 


88  A  New  Nation 

came  the  fishermen  to  mend  their  great  nets,  and  the  fowlers 
with  their  ducking-guns  and  dogs,  and  the  darkies,  old  and 
young,  to  lend  a  hand  on  the  flats,  or  in  the  blinds  or  the 
boats,  or  in  the  fish-houses  that  flanked  the  beach  at  con 
venient  points.  Hither  came  country  wagons  from  all  the 
neighboring  counties,  to  convey  the  shad  or  rockfish  to  in 
land  markets.  In  April  and  May  of  1828  Potomac  shad 
were  sold  on  the  wharves  of  Georgetown  for  five  dollars  a 
hundred.  In  the  early  spring  of  1826,  rockfish  weighing 
from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  pounds  were  netted  in 
great  numbers;  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  river,  at  Syca 
more  Landing,  thirty  miles  below  Washington,  four  hundred 
and  fifty  of  these  noble  fish  were  taken  at  one  draught  of  the 
seine.  The  multitudinous  fleet  of  small  craft,  bright,  brisk, 
and  bustling,  that  flitted  to  and  fro  between  the  fishing- 
grounds  and  the  landings, —  the  boatmen  shouting,  singing. 
bantering  each  other, —  imparted  to  the  beautiful  river  the 
aspect  of  a  festal  panorama. 

In  the  late  fall  and  winter  myriads  of  canvasback  ducks, 
then  commonly  called  "  whitebacks,"  came  to  feed  on  the 
small  white  celery  that  grew  so  abundantly  in  the  swamps 
and  flats  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Susquehanna.  Formerly 
on  James  River  they  were  known  as  "  sheldrake  "  ;  but  their 
favorite  provender  failing  there,  they  flocked  to  the  mo  IT 
bountiful  fields  between  Craney  and  Analostan  islands. 
They  gathered  in  clouds  of  thousands,  obscuring  the  river. 
and  storming  the  air  with  multitudinous  clangor,  only  to  be 
fusilladed  from  blinds,  or  "  tolled  "  within  range  by  dogs 
trained  to  play  and  leap,  or  by  the  waving  of  a  red-and-yel- 
low  handkerchief  luring  them  by  their  foolish  and  fatal 
curiosity.  Tom  Davis,  the  trusty  fowler  of  Mount  Vernon, 
with  his  Newfoundland  dog  "  Gunner,"  often  brought 


Old  Georgetown  89 

down  at  a  single  discharge  of  his  clumsy  British  "  piece  "  as 
many  ducks  as  might  serve  the  larder  for  a  week. 

Even  so  the  snow-white  swans  were  tolled  as  they  floated 
in  fleets  of  hundreds  near  the  shore  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Occoquan :  superbly  silly  birds,  spreading  from  six  to  seven 
feet  of  flashing  pinions,  clanging  and  trumpeting  in  melo 
dious  clamor  that  on  still  evenings  might  be  heard  by  the 
dwellers  on  the  creeks  three  miles  away,  and  lured  to  their 
death  by  the  diverting  puzzle  of  a  cunning  puppy's  antics. 

Similarly  spectacular  was  the  sport  that  went  to  the  tak 
ing  of.  the  ortolan  l  on  dark  October  nights  on  the  flats  near 
Georgetown,  when  the  birds  had  settled  to  their  perches 
on  the  reeds  and  wild  oats.  Amidships  across  the  gun 
wale  of  a  canoe  stout  boards  were  laid  to  make  a  platform, 
and  these  were  sheathed  with  clay  to  form  a  hearth. 
Here  a  fire  of  lightwood  was  kindled,  and  the  boat  crept 
noiselessly  to  the  flats,  a  boy  feeding  the  flame  as  it 
glided  in  among  the  perches  where  the  birds,  stupefied  by 
the  glare,  incapable  of  flight  or  outcry,  and  in  plain  sight 
of  the  hunters,  were  clubbed  with  light  paddles,  and  so 
killed  or  captured  by  scores.  Thirty  or  forty  dozen  were 
often  taken  by  one  canoe. 

In  John  Adams's  time  a  witty  French  lady  described 
Georgetown  as  "a  town  of  houses  without  streets,  as 
Washington  is  a  town  of  streets  without  houses'";  and 
Mrs.  Adams,  writing  to  her  daughter  in  November,  1800, 
says :  "  Woods  are  all  you  see  from  Baltimore  until 
you  reach  the  City,  which  is  only  so  in  name  —  here  and 
there  a  small  cot  without  a  window  appearing  in  the  For 
est,  through  which  you  travel  miles  without  seeing  a  Hu- 

1  Sora  of  Virginia,  rail  of  Pennsylvania. 


90  A  New  Nation 

man  being."  Oliver  Wolcott,  writing  to  his  wife  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  1800,  says:  "There  is  one  good 
Tavern  about  forty  rods  from  the  Capitol,  and  several 
other  houses  are  building;  but  I  do  not  perceive  how 
the  members  of  Congress  can  possibly  secure  lodgings  un 
less  they  will  consent  to  live  like  Scholars  in  a  college  or 
Monks  in  a  monastery,  crowded  ten  or  twenty  in  one 
house,  and  utterly  secluded  from  Society.  The  only  re 
source  for  such  as  wish  to  live  Comfortably  will  be  found 
in  Georgetown,  three  miles  distant,  over  as  bad  a  Road 
in  winter  as  the  clay  grounds  near  Hartford." 

But  thirty  years  later  a  four-horse  coach  plied  almost 
hourly  between  Georgetown  and  Washington  for  the  ac 
commodation  of  the  patres  (and  matres)  conscripti,  car 
rying  twelve  inside  at  "  a  levy "  each.  From  Gadsby's 
hotel,  the  "  Indian  Queen,"  and  the  Mansion  House,  in 
Washington,  stages  ran  to  Baltimore  for  a  fare  of  $2.50; 
there  were  daily  steamboats  to  Alexandria,  Norfolk,  and 
Fredericksburg,  and  a  "  mail-stage "  every  evening  for 
Pittsburg  and  Wheeling. 

Meanwhile,  Georgetown  had  grown  to  be  a  place  of 
homes  and  congressmen's  lodgings  —  a  town  of  spindle- 
legged  sideboards,  tall  clocks,  marquetry  tables,  claw- 
and-ball  chairs,  screens  and  andirons  and  warming-pans. 
The  "  Union  Tavern,"  a  hostelry  of  fashionable  preten 
sions  during  the  administrations  of  Jefferson,  Madison, 
and  Monroe,  had  the  honor  to  entertain  many  imposing 
personages,  such  as  Louis  Philippe  and  Talleyrand,  Volney 
and  Baron  Humboldt,  Jerome  Bonaparte  and  Lafayette. 
Georgetown  had  already  become  the  "  court  end,"  a  tryst - 
ing  place  and  rendezvous  for  persons  of  quality,  while 
as  yet  Washington  was  but  a  huddle  of  booths,  taverns, 


Old  Georgetown  91 

and  gambling-houses  set  round  about  a  political  race 
course. 

At  the  houses  of  the  cabinet  and  the  wealthier  members 
of  the  Senate  and  the  House  there  were  endless  entertain 
ments  and  evening  parties  in  the  season,  with  suppers,  punch, 
and  cards,  and  cotillions  and  contra-dances  to  the  music  of 
harp  and  violin. 

To  the  assemblies,  always  exclusive  and  ceremonious, 
and  managed  by  a  committee  who  dispensed  their  com 
plimentary  cards  with  the  superfine  discrimination  of  Al- 
mack's,  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  and  members  of  the 
diplomatic  corps  came  in  regimentals  and  regalia,  while 
plain  citizens  disported  themselves  in  pumps,  silk  stock 
ings,  ruffled  cravats,  two  or  even  three  waistcoats  of  dif 
ferent  colors,  the  dangling  fob-ribbon  with  gold  buckles 
and  a  big  seal  of  topaz  or  carnelian,  regulation  frock- 
coats  of  green  or  claret-colored  cloth  with  huge  lapels  and 
gilded  buttons,  and  Hessian  top-boots  with  gold  tassels. 
Certain  of  the  exquisites  affected  ultra-fashionable  full 
dress,  which  prescribed  coats  with  great  rolling  collars 
and  short  waists,  voluminous  cravats  of  white  cambric, 
and  small-clothes  or  tight  trousers. 

We  read  of  skirts  of  five  breadths,  a  quarter  of  a  yard 
each,  of  the  favorite  India  crape,  coquettishly  short  for 
the  freer  display  of  the  slipper  and  silk  stocking  match 
ing  the  color  of  the  gown  and  fastened  with  ribbons  crossed 
over  the  instep  and  ankle.  The  low  waist  came  to  an  end 
abruptly  under  the  arms,  which  were  covered  with  gloves  so 
fine  that  they  were  sometimes  stowed  cunningly  in  the  shell 
of  an  English  walnut.  The  hair,  dressed  high,  was  crowned 
with  a  comb  of  tortoise-shell,  while  turbans  and  ostrich- 
feathers  were  the  peculiar  ensigns  of  wives  and  matrons. 


92  A  New  Nation 

After  the  Revolution  the  minuet,  which  had  long  held 
the  place  of  honor  in  the  select  assemblies,  began  to  be 
slighted,  fashionable  favor  turning  capriciously  to  less  exact 
ing  and  more  democratic  styles  of  diversion  for  the  fantastic 
toe.  General  Washington,  whose  performance  in  the  stalely 
dance  was  impressive,  appeared  in  that  function  for  the  last 
time  in  1781,  at  a  ball  given  in  Fredericksburg  in  honor  of 
the  French  and  American  officers  on  their  return  from  the 
capitulation  of  Yorktown.  The  last  birth-night  ball  he  at 
tended  was  in  Alexandria  in  1798. 

John  Penclleton  Kennedy,  author  of  "  Swallow  Barn  1! 
and  "  Horseshoe  Robinson,"  himself  a  conspicuous  person 
ality  in  the  clubs  and  fashionable  gatherings  of  1820,  was 
wont  to  gossip  pleasantly  concerning  the  wits  and  beans  who 
pranced  so  gallantly  on  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  Alexandria, 
and  Georgetown  in  his  childhood.  'k  Cavaliers  of  the  old 
school,  full  of  starch  and  powder;  most  of  them  the  iron 
gentlemen  of  the  Revolution,  with  leathery  faces ;  old 
campaigners,  displaying  military  carriage  and  much  impos 
ing  swagger;  convivial  blades,  too,  and  heroes  of  long 
stories;  all  in  three-cornered  hats  and  wigs  and  buff  coats 
with  narrow  capes,  long  backs,  and  hip  pockets,  small 
clothes  that  barely  reached  the  knee,  striped  stockings,  and 
great  buckles  to  their  shoes ;  and  then  the  long  steel  chains 
that  hung  half-way  to  the  knee,  dangling  with  seals  shaped 
like  the  sounding-board  of  a  pulpit!  " 

These  oppressive  gentry  made  the  little  town  fairly  jump 
with  the  ring  of  their  gold-headed  canes  on  the  pavement, 
"  especially  when  the  superfine  swashbuckler  accosted  a  lady 
in  the  street  with  a  bow  that  required  a  whole  sidewalk  to 
make  it  in  —  the  wide  scrape  of  the  foot,  and  the  cane  thrust 
with  a  ilourish  under  the  left  arm  till  it  stuck  out  behind 


Old  Georgetown  93 

along  with  the  stiff  cue!  And  nothing  could  be  more 
piquant  than  the  pretty  cox-comhry  of  the  lady,  as  she  re 
ciprocated  the  salutation  with  a  deep,  low  curtsy,  her  chin 
bridled  to  her  breast." 

The  turnpike  was  a  diverting  novelty  and  the  steamboat 
a  wonder,  when  Dolly  Madison,  inspiring  sprite  of  tea- 
parties  and  loo,  and  idol  of  the  common  people,  warm 
hearted  and  prodigally  hospitable,  cleverly  blending  gracious 
dignity  with  a  frank  condescension,  queened  it  so  kindly  in 
her  spangled  turbans,  paradise  plumes,  and  rosetted  shoes, 
and  ruled  her  little  world  of  lovers  with  a  snuff-box.  It 
was  at  one  of  her  receptions  in  Georgetown  that  an  amus 
ing  incident  occurred,  remembered  for  the  characteristic 
tact  it  illustrated.  A  shy  young  fellow  from  the  country 
had  come  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  star  of  the  hour.  Airs. 
Madison  observed  him  neglected  and  embarrassed,  and  ap 
proaching  him  quickly  with  extended  hand,  so  startled  the 
abashed  and  timid  lad,  who  had  just  been  served  with  coffee, 
that  he  dropped  the  saucer  and  thrust  the  half-filled  cup 
into  his  pocket.  "  How  the  crowd  jostles !  "  said  the  de 
lightful  Dolly.  "  Let  me  have  the  servant  bring  you  coffee. 
And  how  is  your  charming  mother  ?  ^'e  were  friends,  you 
know."  Ever  "  mistress  of  herself,  though  china  fall," 
that  dazed,  dumbfounded  boy  was  not  less  interesting  to  her 
gracious  solicitude  than  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
in  their  gowns,  or  the  diplomatic  corps  in  their  regalia,  or 
distinguished  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  in  the  luster  of 
full  uniform  —  all  dancing  attendance  at  those  memorable 
levees  on  New  Year's  day  and  the  Fourth  of  July,  when 
Dolly  Madison  was  "  at  home  "  to  kings,  presidents,  and 
the  people,  without  distinction  of  persons. 

She  was  preeminently  mistress  of  the  arts  of  society,  and 


94  A  New  Nation 

her  entertainments  in  Georgetown  and  Washington  were 
events  of  memorable  import  in  the  political  as  \vell  as  in  the 
social  world.  Sectional  rancor  or  the  spites  of  party  had 
no  place  at  her  teas  and  receptions.  A  ball  that  she  gave 
in  1824  is  chronicled  as  the  "  grand  ball  "  of  that  time. 
Webster  and  Clay,  Calhoun,  Randolph,  and  Jackson,  were 
there  in  their  pride  of  blue  coats  and  gilt  buttons,  buff  waist 
coats,  silk  stockings,  and  pumps ;  while  her  democratic 
majesty  was  singular  and  conspicuous  in  a  suit  of  steel  — 
her  gown  of  "  steel  lama,"  with  brilliant  ornaments  of  cut 
steel  in  her  hair  and  on  her  throat,  and  arms.  Her  por 
trait  by  Leslie,  a  reflection  from  the  court  of  Napoleon, 
shows  an  American  woman  of  the  republican  court  in  her 
proper  panoply  of  grace,  culture,  and  distinction. 


The  obverse  and  reverse  of  a   Washington  one-cent  piece,  dated   1791 

These  one-cent  pieces  are  now  rare.      The  coin    from   which   the  pictures  were  made 
was  placed   under  the  glass  of  the   Sharpless   pastel    portrait   of   Wash 
ington,    now    owned    by    Dr.    S.    Weir    Mitchell. 


THE  LIBERTY  OFTHE  SEAS  WILL  BE  THE  HAPPINESS  OF  THE  EARTH 


ROBERT  FULTON  AND  THE  CLERMONT 
BY  ALICE  CRARY  SUTCLIFFE 

Great-Granddaughter  of  the  Inventor 


THE    EARLY    LIFE    OF    FULTON 

The  farm-house  at  Little  Britain,  Lancaster  County, 
Pennsylvania,  to  which  the  senior  Fulton  brought  his  fam 
ily  in  the  early  spring  of  1765  is  still  standing  at  the  country 
cross-roads.  There  Robert  Fulton  the  inventor  was  born 
on  November  14,  1765. 

In  1844  the  township  of  Little  Britain  was  resurveyed, 
and  a  new  section  was  set  aside,  to  be  known  as  "  Fulton 
Township,"  in  honor  of  the  child  who  lived  for  the  first 
few  months  of  his  eventful  life  within  its  quiet  borders. 

There  are  several  anecdotes  which  relate  to  Robert  Ful 
ton's  early  interest  in  mechanics  —  the  first  steps  of  progress 
toward  his  later  skill.  In  1773,  when  he  was  eight  years 
old,  his  mother,  having  previously  taught  him  to  read  and 
write,  sent  him  to  a  school  kept  by  Mr.  Caleb  Johnson,  a 
Quaker  gentleman  of  pronounced  Tory  principles  —  so  pro 
nounced,  in  fact,  that  he  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life  dur- 

95 


96 


A  New  Nation 


ing  the  Revolution.     But  Robert  Fulton  did  not  care  for 
books,  and  he  began  at  a  very  early  age  to  search  for  prob- 


Robcrt  Fulton. 


lems  never  mastered  and  bound  in  print.  This  greatly  dis 
tressed  the  Quaker  teacher,  who  spared  not  the  rod;  and 
it  is  said -that  in  administering  such  discipline  on  the  hand 


Robert  Fulton  and  the  Clermont        97 

of  Robert  Fulton,  he  one  day  testily  exclaimed:  "There, 
that  will  make  you  do  something ! "  To  which  Robert, 
with  folded  arms,  replied :  "  Sir,  I  came  to  have  something 
beaten  into  my  brains,  and  not  into  my  knuckles."  With 
out  doubt  he  was  a  trial  to  his  teacher. 

He  entered  school  one  day  very  late,  and  when  the  master 
inquired  the  reason,  Robert  with  frank  interest  replied  that 
he  had  been  at  Nicholas  Miller's  shop  pounding  out  lead  for 
a  pencil.  "  It  is  the  very  best  I  ever  had,  sir,"  he  affirmed 
as  he  displayed  his  product.  The  master,  after  an  examina 
tion  of  the  pencil,  pronounced  it  excellent.  When  Robert's 
mother,  who  had  been  distressed  by  his  lack  of  application 
to  his  studies,  expressed  to  his  teacher  her  pleasure  at  signs 
of  improvement,  the  latter  confided  to  her  that  Robert  had 
said  to  him :  "  My  head  is  so  full  of  original  notions  that 
there  is  no  vacant  chamber  to  store  away  the  contents  of 
dusty  books." 

These  incidents  to  the  contrary,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  Robert  Fulton  did  absorb  a  good  knowledge  of  the 
rudiments  of  education. 

In  1777,  Congress  held  session  in  the  old  court  house  at 
Lancaster,  and  during  this  time  the  town  became  famous 
as  a  depot  of  supplies  for  the  American  forces.  Rifles, 
blankets,  and  clothing  were  manufactured  there,  powder  for 
the  troops  was  stored  in  the  town,  and  in  that  year  a  certain 
Paul  Zantzinger  furnished  General  Wayne's  men  with  650 
suits  of  uniform. 

Fulton  was  nicknamed  by  his  comrades  "  Quicksilver 
Bob,"  because  of  his  frequent  purchases  of  the  illusive  and 
glittering  metal,  used  by  him  in  experiments  which  he  de 
clined  to  describe.  Before  this  time  he  had  drawn  designs 
for  firearms  and  had  become  expert  in  experimenting  with 


98  A  New  Nation 

them  in  order  to  determine  the  comparative  carrying  dis 
tance  of  different  bores  and  balls.  lie  is  known  to  have 
manufactured  an  airgim  in  the  year  1779,  but  there  is  no 
record  of  its  success. 

At  the  age  of  seventeen,  Fulton  left  Lancaster  to  seek  his 
fortune,  taking  up  his  residence  in  Philadelphia  as  a  painter 
of  portraits  and  miniatures.  His  papers  are  singularly 
devoid  of  reference  to  these  years,  lie  was  never  retro 
spective,  but  eager  for  new  accomplishment.  Life  offered 
him  delights  in  art  and  science,  and  his  industry  appears  to 
have  made  alternate  choice  in  these  fields  of  thought  and  en 
terprise.  His  energy  was  indefatigable;  he  not  only  earned 
his  own  living,  but  sent  remittances  to  his  mother  in  Lan 
caster.  He  apparently  seized  upon  any  form  of  employ 
ment  which  could  be  secured  by  personal  endeavor. 

He  enjoyed  a  personal  friendship  with  Benjamin  Frank 
lin,  who  gave  him  unusual  attention  and  kindness. 

In  1/86,  Robert  Fulton  sailed  for  England,  bearing  nu 
merous  letters  of  introduction  to  distinguished  Americans 
abroad.  Among  these,  a  letter  from  his  friend  and  patron 
Benjamin  Franklin  to  Benjamin  West,  the  Pennsylvania  ar 
tist  who  had  won  high  honor  in  London,  was  of  special  help 
in  launching  Mr.  Fulton  in  the  art  circles  of  Europe,  and 
the  previous  intimacy  between  the  West  and  Fulton  fami 
lies,  and  the  pronounced  similarity  in  tastes  and  ambitions, 
seem  to  have  attracted  them  to  an  immediate  and  intimate 
comradeship. 

FULTON'S  GENIUS 

At  no  time  since  his  death,  in  the  prime  of  life,  in  1815, 
has  the  public  ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  the  personality 


Robert  Fulton  and  the  Clermont        99 


of  Robert  Fulton.  Since  the  first  trip  of  the  Clermont,  in 
1807,  past  the  Palisades  of  the  Hudson,  the  whole  world, 
in  ever-expanding  measure,  has  enjoyed  with  ungrudging- 
recognition  the  fruit  of  his  inventive  genius. 

Two  years  after  his  death,  his  friend  Cadwallader  Golden 
ascribed  his  achievements  to  "  that  rare  union  of  genius  and 
science  with  practical  knowledge  which  Mr.  Fulton  so  hap 
pily  possessed."  In  the  light  of  present-day  opportunities 
for  scientific  study  and  experiment,  his  friends'  well-con 
sidered  praise  amounts  only  to  say  that  Fulton's  mechani 
cal  genius  was  intuitive,  and  marched  to  practical  results  by 
new  yet  well-measured  steps,  along  the  path  of  individual 
experiment.  He  certainly  profited  by  the  vague  ideas  and 
false  starts  of  others,  but  he  brought  to  their  development 
an  inventive  power,  an  insight  into  mechanical  principle, 
and  a  vision  of  future  usefulness,  that  must  ever  find  him  a 
high  place  among  the 
creative  geniuses  and 
benefactors  of  man 
kind.  .  .  .  The  bil 
lions  of  money  invested 
in  battle-ships  and  sub 
marine  torpedo-boats  in 
our  day  indicate  how 
thoroughly  Fulton  was 
ahead  of  his  age  ;  though 
they  do  not  quite  con 
vince  us  of  the  philoso 
phy  of  his  motive  for  Obverse  of  a  medal  issued  by  the  Fulton 

trying  to  do  away  with 

the  terror  and  wastefulness  of  war  by  the  application  of  a 

concentrated  terror.     But  the  minor  fame  of  his  warlike 


100 


A  New  Nation 


appliances  is  merged  in  the  glory  of  his  achievements  f o  • 
commerce  and  navigation. 


FULTON  S    FOLLY 


Prior  to  the  comple 
tion  of  the  Clermont, 
a  throng  of  idle- 
minded  men  congre 
gated  in  the  vicinity, 
called  it  "  Fulton's 
Folly  "  and  scoffed  at 
its  possibilities.  The 
actual  safety  of  the  in 
vention  was  seriously 
menaced  by  this  lawless 
throng  and  by  the  careless  piloting  of  sloops  in  the  slip 
After  one  threatened  mishap  Fulton  found  it  necessary  to 
guard  the  boat. 


Fulton's  Inkstand. 


FULTON  S    OWN    DESCRIPTION 

"  My  first  steamboat  on  the  Hudson's  River  was  150  feet 
long,  13  feet  wide,  drawing  2  feet  of  water,  bow  and  stern 
60  degrees;  she  displaced  36.40  cubic  feet,  equal  100  tons  of 
water ;  her  bow  presented  26  feet  to  the  water,  plus  and 
minus  the  resistance  of  I  foot  running  4  miles  an  hour." 

Fulton  did  not  take  out  a  patent  for  his  steamboat  until 
February,  1809,  and  his  second  patent  was  secured  October 
2,  i8ro. 


Robert  Fulton  and  the  'Clerrnont 


HISTORIC    FIRST    VOYAGE    OF    THE    CLERMONT 

On  August  17,  1807,  the  Clermont  made  its  memorable 
first  voyage  up  the  Hudson.  At  one  o'clock  the  boat  was 
loosed  from  its  moorings  at  a  dock  on  the  North  River  near 
the  State's  Prison,  Greenwich  Village. 

Fulton's  feelings  at  this  crisis  are  set  down  in  a  letter  to 
an  unknown  friend,  quoted  as  part  of  a  reminiscence  by  the 
late  Judge  Story  in  Sanders'  early  "  History  of  Schenec- 
tady,"  and  secured  by  Mrs.  Robert  Fulton  Blight  from  al 
leged  original. 

My  dear  Sir: 

The  moment  arrived  in  which  the  word  was  to  be  given  for 
the  boat  to  move.  My  friends  were  in  groups  on  the  deck.  There 
was  anxiety  mixed  with  fear  among  them.  They  were  silent,  sad 
and  weary.  I  read  in  their  looks  nothing  but  disaster,  and  al 
most  repented  of  my  efforts.  The  signal  was  given  and  the  boat 
moved  on  a  short  distance  and  then  stopped  and  became  immov 
able.  To  the  silence  of  the  preceding  moment,  now  succeeded 
murmurs  of  discontent,  and  agitations,  and  whispers  and  shrugs. 
I  could  hear  distinctly  repeated  — "  I  told  you  it  was  so ;  it  is  a 
foolish  scheme:  I  wish  we  were  well  out  of  it." 

I  elevated  myself  upon  a  platform  and  addressed  the  assembly. 
I  stated  that  I  knew  not  what  was  the  matter,  but  if  they  would 
be  quiet  and  indulge  me  for  half  an  hour,  I  would  either  go  on 
or  abandon  the  voyage  for  that  time.  This  short  respite  was 
conceded  without  objection.  I  went  below  and  examined  the  ma 
chinery,  and  discovered  that  the  cause  was  a  slight  maladjust 
ment  of  some  of  the  work.  In  a  short  time  it  was  obviated.  The 
boat  was  again  put  in  motion.  She  continued  to  move  on.  All 
were  still  incredulous.  None  seemed  willing  to  trust  the  evidence 
of  their  own  senses.  We  left  the  fair  city  of  New  York;  we 
passed  through  the  romantic  and  ever-varying  scenery  of  the 
Highlands;  we  descried  the  clustering  houses  of  Albany;  we 


102 


A  New  Nation 


reached  its  shores, —  and  then,  even  then,  when  all  seemed  achieved, 
I  was  the  victim  of  disappointment. 

Imagination  superseded  the  influence  of  fact.  It  was  then 
doubted  if  it  could  be  done  again,  or  if  done,  it  was  doubted  if  it 
could  be  made  of  any  great  value. 

Yours,  R.  FULTON. 

After  her  return  from  the  first  voyage  up  the  Hudson, 
the  Clcrmont  was  left  at  the  New  York  dock  for  more  than 
two  weeks.  This  time  was  considered  necessary  by  Ful 
ton  and  Livingston  to  fit  the  boat  for  regular  traffic  and  to 
make  certain  improvements  which  Fulton  notes  in  the  fol 
lowing  letter  to  the  Chancellor,  who  had  remained  at  his 
country  place. 

New  York, 

Saturday,  the  28  [29th]  of  August,  1807. 
Dear  Sir: 

On  Saturday  I  wrote  you  that  I  arrived  here  on  Friday  at  four 

o'clock,  which  made  my 
voyage  from  Albany  ex 
actly  thirty  hours.  We 
had  a  little  wind  on 
Friday  morning,  but  no 
waves  which  produced 
any  effect.  I  have  been 
making  every  exertion 
to  get  off  on  Monday 
morning,  but  there  has 
been  much  work  to  do 
—  boarding  all  the  sides, 
decking  over  the  boiler 
and  works,  finishing  each 
cabin  with  twelve  berths 
to  make  them  comfort 
able,  and  strengthening 
many  parts  of  the  iron  work.  So  much  to  do,  and  the  rain,  which 
delavs  the  caulkers,  will,  I  fear,  not  let  me  off  till  Wednesday 


Compass  used  on  the  Clcrmont 


Robert  Fulton  and  the  Clermont      103 


morning.  Then,  how 
ever,  the  boat  will  be  as 
complete  as  she  can  be 
made  —  all  strong  and  in 
good  order  and  the  men 
well  organized,  and  ] 
hope,  nothing  to  do  but 
to  run  her  for  six  weeks 
or  two  months.  The  first 
week,  that  is  if  she  starts 
on  Wednesday,  she  will 
make  one  trip  to  Albany 
and  back.  Every  succeed 
ing  week  she  will  run 
three  trips  —  that  is,  two 
to  Albany  and  one  to  New 
York,  or  two  to  Xew 
York  and  one  to  Albany, 
always  having  Sunday  and 
four  nights  for  rest  to  the 
crew.  By  carrying  for 
the  usual  price  there  can 
be  no  doubt  but  the  steam 
boat  will  have  the  pref 
erence  because  of  the 
certainty  and  agreeable 
movements.  I  have  seen 
the  captain  of  the  fine 
sloop  from  Hudson.  He 
says  the  average  of  his 
passages  have  been  forty- 
eight  hours.  For  the 
steamboat  it  would  have 
been  thirty  certain.  The  persons  who  came  down  with  me  were  so 
much  pleased  that  they  said  were  she  established  to  run  periodically 
they  would  never  go  in  anything  else.  I  will  have  her  registered 
and  everything  done  which  I  can  recollect.  Everything  looks  well 
and  I  have  no  doubt  will  be  very  productive. 

Yrours  truly,  ROBERT  FULTON. 


Statue  of  Robert  Fulton  at  the  Fulton 
Ferry-house,  Brooklyn,  New  York. 


104  A  New  Nation 

The  following  postscript  ends  the  letter  of  August  2Qth :  L 

You  may  look  for  me  Thursday  morning  about  seven  o'clock. 
I  think  it  would  be  well  to  write  to  your  brother  Edward  to  get 
information  on  the  velocity  of  the  Mississippi,  the  size  and  form 
of  the  boats  used,  the  number  of  hands  and  quantity  of  tons  in 
each  boat,  the  number  of  miles  they  make  against  the  current  in 
twelve  hours,  and  the  quantity  of  tons  which  go  up  the  river  in  ;i 
year.  On  this  point  beg  of  him  to  be  accurate. 

On  the  2nd  of  September,  the  necessary  equipment  and 
alterations  having  been  completed,  Fulton  inserted  his  firs: 
advertisement  in  The  Albany  Gazette,  and  the  Evening  Post 
of  New  York.  It  read : 

THE  NORTH  RIVER  STEAMBOAT 

Will  leave  Pauler's  Hook  Ferry  on  Friday  the  4th  of  Sep 
tember,  at  6  in  the  morning,  and  arrive  at  Albany,  on  Sal  - 
urday,  at  6  in  the  afternoon. 

Provisions,   good   berths   and   accommodations   are   pro 
vided. 

The  charge  to  each  passenger  is  as  follows : 

To  Newburgh  $3  time  14  hours 
To  Poughkeepsie                   4  17 

To  Esopus  4^2  20 

To  Hudson  5  30 

To  Albany  7  36 

For  places,  apply  to  Wm.  Vandervoort,  N0>  48  Courtlandt- 
street,  on  the  corner  of  Greemvich-street. 

Way  passengers  to  Tarry  Town,  etc.,  etc.,  will  apply  to 
the  captain  on  board. 

1  Robert  Fulton  to  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Saturday,  28  Ogth]  Au 
gust,  1807.  Original  formerly  in  possession  of  Mr.  Clermont  Living 
ston. 


Robert  Fulton  and  the  Clermont      105 

The  Steam  Boat  will  leave  Albany  on  Monday  the  7th 
of  September  at  6  in  the  morning  and  arrive  at  New-York 
on  Tuesday  at  6  in  the  evening. 

She  will  leave  New- York  on  Wednesday  morning  at  6, 
and  arrive  at  Albany  on  Thursday  evening  at  6  in  the  even 
ing. 

She  will  leave  Albany  on  Friday  morning  at  6,  and  ar 
rive  at  New-York  on  Saturday  evening  at  6. —  Thus  per 
forming  two  voyages  from  Albany  and  one  from  New- 
York  within  the  week.  On  Monday  the  14th,  and  Friday 
the  1 8th,  she  will  leave  New- York  at  6  in  the  morning,  and 
Albany  on  the  i6th,  at  6  in  the  morning,  after  which  the  ar 
rangements  for  her  departure  will  be  announced. 

THE  STEAM  BOAT  being  thoroughly  repaired,  and  precau 
tion  taken  that  injury  shall  not  be  done  to  her  wheels  in 
future,  it  is  intended  to  run  her  as  a  PACKET  for  the  re 
mainder  of  the  season.  She  will  take  her  departure  from 
New-York  and  Albany  at  9  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  al-. 
ways  perform  her  voyage  in  from  30  to  36  hours. 


THE  MISSIONS  OF  ALTA  CALIFORNIA 


BY  JOHN  T.  DOYLE 


Cross  at  Monterey. 


Although  tie 
peninsula  of  Lov 
er  California  w;.s 
discovered  as  early 
as  the  year  1534, 
and  many  attempts 
were  made  to  col 
onize  it,  it  ro- 
mained  wholly  un 
occupied  by  Spain 
down  to  1697. 
In  February  of 
that  year  two  Jes 


uit  fathers,  Juan  Maria  Salvatierra  and  Francisco  Eusebio 
Kino,  asked  permission  to  attempt  the  spiritual  conquest  of 
the  country,  which  was  granted  on  condition  that  the  king 
should  not  be  called  on  for  any  part  of  the  expense  involved, 
and  that  possession  should  be  taken  distinctly  in  the  name  of 
the  Spanish  crown.  Armed  with  this  authority  and  the  sanc 
tion  of  their  superiors  in  the  order,  the  two  missionaries  set 
about  collecting  funds  for  their  undertaking,  and  in  a  short 
time  succeeded  in  obtaining  sufficient  means  to  commence  it. 
These  funds,  subscribed  by  charitable  individuals,  whose 
names  and  contributions  the  gratitude  of  the  fathers  has 
preserved  for  us  to  this  day,  increased,  in  progress  of  time, 

106 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       107 

to  an  aggregate  of  sufficient  importance  to  find  frequent 
mention  in  Mexican  legislation  and  history,  under  the  name 
of  the  "  Pious  Fund  of  the  Californias."  It  constituted 
afterwards  the  endowment  and  support  of  the  Missions  on 
all  the  west  coast  of  the  continent  as  far  north  as  claimed  by 
Spain,  the  whole  of  which  wras  called  by  the  general  name  of 
the  Californias. 

The  thirteen  Missions  founded  by  the  Jesuits  in  Lower 
California  extended  from  Cape  San  Lucas,  at  the  extremity 
of  the  peninsula,  northwards.  Details  regarding  them  are 
deemed  out  of  place  here :  they  were  in  a  flourishing  con 
dition  at  the  time  of  the  expulsion  of  the  order  in  1/68,  and 
the  establishments  remain  to  the  present  day ;  ruined  indeed 
and  deserted  by  the  population  that  once  clustered  round 
them,  but  attesting  still  the  pious  zeal  of  their  founders. 

Father  Michael  Joseph  Serra  was  born  in  the  island  of 
Majorca,  in  the  year  1713.  After  pursuing  his  studies  in 
the  Lullian  University  there  he  evinced  a  preference  for  a 
religious  life,  and  was  admitted  to  the  order  of  St.  Francis, 
taking  instead  of  his  baptismal  names  that  of  Junipero,  by 
which  only  he  is  known  in  history.  The  Franciscans  and 
Dominicans  were,  about  that  period,  extending  their  Mis 
sions  among  the  Indians  of  America  in  rivalry  with  the 
Jesuits,  and  Father  Serra  with  three  of  his  fellows-members 
became  inflamed  with  the  desire  to  take  part  in  these  pious 
enterprises.  The  other  associates  were  Fathers  Rafael  Ver 
ger,  Francisco  Palou,  and  Juan  Crespi.  They  obtained  per 
mission  to  join  a  body  of  missionaries  which  in  1749  was 
assembled  at  Cadiz  to  embark  for  the  New  World,  and  after 
a  ninety-nine  days'  voyage  they  landed  in  Vera  Cruz. 

After  many  years'  successful  missionary  efforts  in  the 
Sierra  Gorda,  Father  Serra  was  selected  to  take  principal 


io8 


A  New  Nation 


Mission  of  San  Antonio  of  Padua,  about  twenty  miles  from  Monterey 

charge  of  the  Missions  of  California,  now  confided  to  the 
Franciscans,  and  he  arrived  at  the  port  of  Loreto  with  fif 
teen  associates  on  the  2nd  of  April,  1768.  After  having 
made  the  necessary  disposition  for  occupying  the  various 
establishments  of  the  peninsula  —  a  task  which  occupied 
many  months,  as  they  extended  over  a  territory  seven  hun 
dred  miles  in  length  —  he  was  ready  to  cooperate  with 
Galvez  in  the  subjection  of  Upper  California  to  the  practical 
dominion  of  the  crown  of  Spain  and  the  Christian  religion. 
Txvo  expeditions  were  organized  for  the  purpose,  one  by  sea 
and  the  other  by  land.  The  latter  was  formed  into  two  de 
tachments,  which,  after  a  toilsome  march  from  San  Fei- 
nando  de  Vellicata,  on  the  Indian  frontier  of  Lower  Cali 
fornia,  were,  on  the  ist  of  July,  1769,  reunited  at  the  bay 
of  San  Diego,  where  the  schooners  San  Carlos  and  San 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       109 


Antonio,  which  had  come  up  the  coast  to  meet  them,  were 
also  safely  anchored.  San  Diego  was  a  place  of  which  at 
that  time  nothing  more  was  known  than  that  there  was  an 
excellent  harbor,  which  had  been  visited  by  Sebastian  Viz- 
cayno  in  his  voyage  of  1601-2.  This  journey  to  San  Diego 
occupied  ninety-three  days,  during  which  Father  Serra  suf 
fered  excruciatingly  from  an  injury  to  one  of  his  legs,  so 
that  at  times  he  could  neither  \valk  nor  ride. 

The  first  Mission  of  Upper  California  was  founded  at  San 
Diego,  and  before  the  lapse  of  a  fortnight  a  second  expedi 
tion  was  organized,  under  Don  Caspar  de  Portola,  which 
was  directed  to  proceed  up  the  coast  as  far  as  Monterey  and 
to  found  a  Mission  there.  Monterey  was  also  a  place  made 
known  to  Spanish  geographers  by  Vizcayno's  voyage  of 
1602,  in  his  report  of  which  he  had  described  it  in  glowing 
terms  as  a  magnificent  harbor,  fit  to  shelter  the  navies  of 
the  world.  Fathers  Juan  Crespi  and  Francisco  Gomez 
were  the  chaplains  of  this  expe 
dition,  which  was  also  to  have 
the  cooperation  of  the  t\vo  schoon 
ers,  which  were  directed  to  the 
same  destination. 

How  this  land  expedition  toiled 
up  the  coast  from  San  Diego,  of 
its  "  moving  accidents  by  flood 
and  field,  of  hairbreadth  'scapes, 
.  of  antres  vast  and  des 
erts  idle,  rough  quarries,  rocks 
and  hills,"  of  how  in  its  search 
for  Monterey  it  stumbled  on  the 
bay  of  San  Francisco  and  first 
made  known  to  civilized  man  the  Pulpit  of  San  Buenaventura. 


no  A  New  Nation 

garden  of  the  present  State  of  California,  I  have  relatec 
elsewhere  and  will  not  here  repeat.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 
having  penetrated  as  far  up  the  coast  and  over  the  Coast 
Range  as  to  look  down  from  the  crest  over  what  is  no\\ 
Searsville  on  the  broad  expanse  of  the  Santa  Clara  Valley, 
and  on  the  great  estuary  which  its  historian  described  as  r. 
"  Mediterranean  sea,"  the  expedition,  compelled  by  the  ap 
proach  of  winter,  the  scarcity  of  food,  and  the  increasing 
hostility  of  the  aborigines,  turned  on  the  nth  of  Novembei 
to  retrace  its  steps  to  San  Diego. 

The  effort  at  missionary  colonization  was  not,  however 
abandoned.  In  17/0  another  expedition  moved  up  the 
coast,  following  the  track  of  the  first  explorers,  whose  dian 
was  their  guide,  and  founded  the  Mission  of  San  Carlos  or 
the  bay  of  Monterey,  close  to  which  was  established  the 
presidio  of  the  same  name.  The  place  first  selected  provec 
unsuitable  for  the  site  of  a  Mission,  and  before  the  close  ot 
1771  the  establishment  was  removed  a  few  miles  to  the  south 
ward  and  planted  on  the  banks  of  the  Carmel  River,  over 
looking  the  charming  little  bay  of  the  same  name.  This  new- 
foundation  was  called  "  El  Carmelo."  The  presidio  re 
tained  its  site  and  subsequently  became  the  capital  city  of 
the  department. 

Monterey  has  become  in  our  day  a  famous  watering- 
place  frequented  by  visitors  from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
the  ancient  Mission,  El  Carmelo,  now  little  better  than  a 
ruin,  continues  to  attract  the  attention  of  travelers  from  its 
picturesque  site  and  from  the  fact  that  it  contains  the  re 
mains  of  the  venerable  men  whose  pious  efforts  created  the 
Missions  and  laid  the  foundations  of  civilization  in  Cali 
fornia.  There  were  interred  the  remains  of  Fathers  Juni- 
pero  Serra,  Juan  Crespi,  and  Rafael  Verger, 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       1 1 1 

San  Diego  and  Monterey  served  to  mark  the  extremes  of 
the  first  Spanish  occupancy;  the  interval  was  filled  up  and 
the  area  of  missionary  conquest  gradually  extended  by 
other  similar  establishments.  The  names  of  these  institu 
tions,  founded  in  rapid  succession,  are  as  follows : 

1771. —  San  Gabriel,   San  Fernando,   San  Antonio. 

1772. —  San  Luis  Obispo. 

1776. —  San  Juan  Capistrano,  San  Francisco  de  Assisi. 

1777. —  Santa  Clara. 

1782. —  San  Buenaventura. 

1786. —  Santa  Barbara. 

1787. —  La  Purissima. 

1791. —  La  Soledad,  and  Santa  Cruz. 

1797. —  San  Juan  Bautista,  San  Jose,  San  Miguel. 

1798. —  San  Luis  Rey. 

1802. —  Santa  Ynez. 

After  this  missionary  efforts  seem  to  have  relaxed,  but  a 
revival  at  a  later  date  led  to  the  foundation  of  San  Rafael 
in  1817,  and  San  Francisco  Solano  in  1823.  Sonoma,  at 
which  this  last  was  located,  was  as  far  north  as  the  mission 
aries  penetrated. 

These  Missions  were,  of  course,  designed  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  rude  aborigines  in  the  truths  of  Christianity  and 
in  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 

The  Franciscans,  who  succeeded  the  Jesuits  in  California, 
followed  their  system.  In  order  to  induce  the  Indians  to 
abandon  their  nomadic  tribal  life,  and  to  exchange  their 
reliance  for  food  on  the  fruits  of  the  chase  and  the  spon 
taneous  products  of  the  forest  for  the  ways  of  civilized  men, 
they  were  at  first  supplied  by  the  missionaries  with  food  and 
clothing  and  afterwards  taught  to  cultivate  the  earth  and 
support  themselves.  Timber  was  felled  wherever  accessi- 


112  A  New  Nation 

ble  and  transported  to  a  suitable  site,  where,  with  unburned 
brick  and  tiles,  the  Mission  church  and  buildings  were 
erected.  The  following  description  of  San  Luis  Rey,  con 
densed  from  the  account  of  an  intelligent  traveler  who  saw 
it  in  its  palmy  days,  will  convey  a  fair  idea  of  the  establish 
ments  of  which  it  was  a  type. 

The  Mission  building  is  in  the  form  of  a  hollow  square  of  about 


Mission  of  San  Jose. 

one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  front,  along  which  a  gallery  extends. 
The  church  forms  one  of  the  wings.  The  edifice,  a  single  story 
in  height,  is  elevated  a  few  feet  above  the  ground.  In  the  interior 
is  a  court  adorned  with  a  fountain  and  planted  with  trees,  on  the 
corridor  extending  around  which  open  the  apartments  of  the  friars 
and  the  major-domo  as  well  as  those  used  for  wrork-shops,  school 
rooms,  and  storehouses,  and  the  chambers  set  apart  for  the  accom 
modation  of  travelers  and  guests. 

The  male  and  female  infirmaries,  as  \vell  as  the  schoolrooms, 
are  placed  in  the  most  quiet  portions  of  the  premises.  The  young 
Indian  girls  occupy  a  set  of  apartments  secluded  from  the  rest 
and  commonly  called  the  "  nunnery,"  and  they  themselves  are  fa 
miliarly  styled  the  "  nuns."  They  are  thus  entirely  protected  from 
intrusion,  and,  being  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  staid  and 
trustworthy  matrons  of  their  own  race,  are  taught  to  spin  and 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       113 

weave  wool,  flax,  and  cotton,  and  do  not  leave  the  nunnery  until 
marriageable. 

The  Indian  children  attend  the  same  schools  with  those  of  the 
white  colonists,  and  are  educated  with  them.  Those  who  exhibit 
the  most  talent  are  taught  some  music,  as  the  plain  chant  of  the 
church,  as  well  as  the  violin,  flute,  horn,  violoncello,  and  other  in 
struments.  Such  as  attain  superior  proficiency,  either  as  carpen 
ters,  smiths,  or  even  agricultural  laborers,  are  made  foremen,  by 
the  name  of  alcaldes,  and  placed  in  charge  of  the  other  workmen. 

Two  ecclesiastics  are  stationed  at  each-  Mission;  the  elder  is 
charged  with  the  internal  administration  and  the  duty  of  religious 
instruction,  the  younger,  with  the  direction  of  the  agricultural  and 
mechanical  labor.  The  Franciscans  assiduously  cultivate  the  study 
of  the  Indian  dialects,  of  which  they  have  compiled  dictionaries  and 
grammars,  some  of  which  are  still  extant. 

Industry  is  inculcated  and  encouraged  by  the  constant  exam 
ple  of  the  Fathers,  who  are  always  the  first  to  put  their  hands 
to  the  work;  and  considering  the  meagerness  of  their  resources, 
and  the  absence  of  European  labor,  the  works  they  have  executed 
with  the  aid  of  unskilled  savages,  of  low  intelligence,  are  marvels 
Df  architecture  and  mechanical  skill.  These  comprise  mills,  ma 
chinery,  bridges,  roads,  and  canals  for  irrigation,  besides  extensive 
agricultural  labors.  For  the  erection  of  nearly  all  the  Mission 
buildings  large  beams  had  to  be  transported  from  the  mountains 
eight  and  ten  leagues  oft,  and  the  Indians  taught  to  burn  lime,  cut 
stone,  make  bricks,  tiles,  etc. 

Opposite  the  Mission  building  is  usually  a  guard-house  for  lodg 
ing  the  escort  of  the  priests,  consisting  of  four  cavalry  soldiers, 
under  command  of  a  sergeant,  who  act  as  couriers,  carrying  corre 
spondence  and  orders  from  one  Mission  to  another,  besides  pro 
tecting  the  Mission  from  the  incursions  of  hostile  Indians. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  ordinary  day's  work  at 
a  Mission.  At  sunrise  the  bell  sounded  for  the  Angelus 
and  the  Indians  assembled  in  the  chapel,  where  they  attended 
morning  prayers  and  mass  and  received  a  short  religious 
instruction.  Then  came  breakfast,  after  which,  distributed 


114  A  New  Nation 

in  squads  as  occasion  required,  they  repaired  to  their  work. 
At  ii  A.  M.  they  ate  dinner,  and  after  that  rested  until  2 
p.  M.  Work  was  then  resumed,  and  continued  until  an 
hour  before  sunset,  when  the  bell  again  tolled  for  the  An- 
gelus.  After  prayers  and  the  rosary  the  Indians  supped,  and 
then  were  free  to  take  part  in  a  dance  or  some  such  innocent 
amusement.  Their  diet  consisted  of  fresh  beef  or  mutton 
in  abundance,  with  vegetables  and  tortillas  made  of  flour  or 
corn-meal.  They  made  drinks  of  the  same  ingredients, 
which  were  called  atolc  and  pinole  respectively.  Their  dress 
consisted  of  a  shirt  of  linen,  a  pair  of  pantaloons,  and  a 
woolen  smock.  The  alcaldes  and  head  workmen  had  also 
cloth  clothes  like  those  of  the  Spaniards;  the  women  re- 


The  first  mission  in.  California   (San  Diego). 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       115 

ceived  every  year  two  changes  of  under-clothing,  a  smock, 
and  a  new  gown. 

The  Indians  of  California  were  not  the  sturdy  warlike 
race  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  nor  did  they 
possess  the  intelligence  or  partial  civilization  of  the  natives 
of  the  tableland  of  Mexico.  They  were  originally  of  low  in 
telligence  and  brutish  habits.  Besides  what  they  obtained 
from  fishing  and  hunting  —  in  which  they  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  specially  dexterous  —  their  food  consisted 
largely  of  acorns,  pine  nuts,  and  the  like,  and  their  cloth 
ing  was  practically  nil.  Though  neither  as  subtle  nor  as 
fierce  as  the  Iroquois,  Algonquins,  and  Hurons  of  Can 
ada,  with  whom  Parkman's  brilliant  pages  have  made  us 
familiar,  they  were  not  wanting  in  cunning,  treachery,  or 
ferocity,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  the  missionaries 
sealed  their  faith  with  their  blood  —  a  sacrifice  from 
which,  to  their  honor  be  it  said,  the  Franciscans  never 
flinched,  any  more  than  the  followers  of  Ignatius. 

As  conversions    f~" 
m  a  d  e    progress    i 
among    the    na-  |- 
tives,      and     the 
young  people,  in 
structed     from 
n  1  -1  11         1  San  Gabriel,  near  Los  Angeles, 

their     childhood, 

came  to  maturity,  they  were  taught  various  industries,  be 
sides  farming.  Ordinary  smith's  and  carpenter's  work  they 
learned  to  do  fairly  well;  their  saddlery  was  of  a  superior 
sort,  and  is  still  sought  for.  As  weavers,  tailors,  and  shoe 
makers  they  would  not  perhaps  have  obtained  recognition 
in  Paris,  London,  or  New  York,  but  they  made  service 
able  blankets,  scrapes,  cloth,  and  shoes,  and  I  have  seen 


A  New  Nation 


Mission  of  San  Miguel,  San  Luis  Obispo  County. 

creditable  specimens  of  their  work  in  silver.  Domestic 
animals  were  introduced  and  they  increased  with  aston 
ishing  rapidity,  and  in  the  care  and  management  of  them 
the  Indians  became  very  dexterous  and  serviceable  —  in 
fact,  some  of  the  most  skilful  horsemen  in  the  world. 

Hides,  tallow,  grain,  wine,  and  oil  were  sold  to  ships 
visiting  the  coast.  From  the  proceeds  the  friars  dis 
tributed  to  the  Indians  handkerchiefs,  clothing,  tobacco, 
rosaries,  trinkets,  etc.,  and  employed  the  surplus  profits  in 
the  embellishment  of  the  churches,  the  purchase  of  musical 
instruments,  pictures,  ornaments  for  the  altar,  etc.  Where 
lands  were  found  suitable  for  the  purpose  the  fathers  es 
tablished  outlying  farms  as  appurtenances  of  the  particular 
Mission  on  which  they  were  made  to  depend.  At  these 
were  gathered  considerable  colonies  of  civilized  Indians 
selected  from  the  most  reliable. 

Besides  instructing  the  natives  and  incidentally  fulfilling 
the  duties  of  parochial  clergy,  the  Missions  extended  a  boun 
tiful  hospitality  to  all  travelers  and  wayfarers.  Planted  at 
intervals  of  about  a  day's  journey,  on  the  natural  route  of 
travel  along  the  coast,  they  became  the  usual  resting-place 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       117 


for  all  travelers  in  either  direction.  Horses  were  the  only 
means  of  locomotion,  and  at  the  end  of  his  hard  day's 
ride  the  weary  traveler  stopped  at  the  door  of  the  Mission 
building  as  naturally,  and  with  as  little  thought  of  intru 
sion,  as  one  might  now  at  a  public  hotel.  Throwing  .his 
rein  to  an  Indian  arricro,  he  was  received  by  the  missionary 
priest,  or  in  his  absence  by  the  sacristan,  with  the  patri 
archal  hospitality  that  Abraham  extended  to  Lot.  A  bath 
was  provided,  followed  by  a  plentiful  meal  and  a  com 
fortable  bed.  He  was  at  liberty  to  stay  as  long  as  his  con 
venience  required,  and  on  leaving  was  provided  with  a 
fresh  horse  and  directions,  or,  if 
needed,  a  guide,  for  his  further  jour 
ney.  Perhaps  it  is  a  tradition  from 
these  early  days,  but  travelers  still 
speak  kindly  of  the  hospitality  of  Cali 
fornia. 

The  Missions  in  this  State  were  in 
all  twenty-one.  They  may  be  said  to 
have  attained  their  maximum  of  pros 
perity  during  the  first  quarter  of  the 
present  century. 

But  the  increase  of  white  settlers, 
bringing  with  them  the  wants,  ambi 
tions,  and  freedom  of  modern  life,  was 
incompatible  with  the  continued  suc 
cess  of  institutions  based,  as  the  Mis 
sions  were,  on  paternal  authority. 
The  Indians  were  infants  in  all  respects 
except  age  and  capacity  for  evil ;  and 
the  settlers  were  subject  to  no  re 
straints  except  those  of  civil  authority. 


In  the  garden  of  the 
Santa  Barbara  Mis 
sion,  California. 


A  New  Nation 


Cloisters  and  bell,  San  Fernando. 


which  was  of  the  weakest 
kind.  Contact  and  inter 
course  with  them  corrupted 
the  Indians  and  relaxed  the 
bonds  of  discipline  among 
them.  Moreover  the  broad 
acres  and  the  vast  herds  of 
the  Missions  excited  the  cu 
pidity  of  the  settlers,  who 
did  not  regard  the  property 
of  the  friars  and  Indians  in 
the  same  light  as  that  of 
white  people.  Under  these 
influences  the  Mexican  con 
gress,  in  1833,  passed  a  law  for  secularizing  the  Mis 
sions,  converting  them  into  parishes,  replacing  the  mis 
sionary  priests  by  curates,  and  emancipating  the  Indians 
from  their  pupilage  to  the  Church.  Administrators  were 
to  be  appointed  for  the  temporalities  of  the  Missions,  the 
proceeds  of  which,  after  a  small  allowance  for  the  main 
tenance  of  the  priest  and  the  charges  of  public  worship, 
were  to  be  applied  to  public  purposes. 

The  ruin  of  the  Missions  was  completed  by  the  American 
conquest.  The  few  remaining  Indians  were  speedily 
driven  or  enticed  away,  for  the  rough  frontiersmen  who 
came  over  the  plains  knew  nothing  of  missionary  friars  or 
civilized  Indians ;  they  came  here  to  squat  on  public  land 
and  respected  no  possession  beyond  160  acres,  and  that  only 
in  the  hands  of  one  familiar  with  the  English  language 
and  modern  weapons.  None  of  the  establishments  retains 
its  original  character.  Where  population  has  grown  up 
around  the  site,  as  at  Santa  Clara,  San  Francisco,  and  San 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       119 

Rafael,  they  became  parish  churches.  At  other  places 
squatters  took  possession  of  them,  extruding  priests  and 
major-domo  impartially,  and  in  more  than  one  case  even 
the  churches  were  sacrilegiously  degraded  to  the  use  of 
stables  and  the  like.  In  others  many  parts  of  the  build 
ings  were  demolished  for  the  sake  of  the  timber,  tiles,  and 
other  building  material  they  afforded. 

The  most  extensive  of  the  old  establishments  was  that 
of  San  Luis  Rey.  I  visited  it  writh  a  companion  in  the 
summer  of  1862. 

The  interior  court,  once  a  garden,  bright  with  flowers  and 
the  lustrous  leaves  of  the  orange  and  lemon  tree,  was  rank 
with  weeds  and  spontaneous  vegetation;  the  fountain  was 


The  Mission  of  San  Luis  Rey,  San  Diego  County. 

dried  up,  and  the  walls  which  confined  its  basin  split  by  the 
swelling  roots  of  neglected  and  overgrown  trees.  Great 
spider  webs  hung  from  the  columns  of  the  corridor,  and 
the  stillness  was  broken  only  by  the  drowsy  hum  of  dragon- 
flies  and  humming-birds.  I  entered  the  venerable  old 
church,  and  while  endeavoring  to  accustom  my  eyes  to  the 
dim,  uncertain  light  which  shrouded  its  interior  I  was  dis- 


120 


A  New  Nation 


turbed  by  the  startled  cry  and  hasty  flight  of  an  enormous 
owl,  which  left  its  perch  over  where  the  high  altar  had 
stood  and  rustled  over  to  a  window  at  the  opposite  end. 
The  Mission  gardens,  particularly  that  in  front  of  the 
main  building,  retained  many  traces  of  former  beauty. 
But  the  hedgerows,  once  carefully  trimmed,  now  grown 
rank  and  wild ;  the  old  rustic  seats  crumbling  to  decay ;  the 
vines  and  fruit  trees,  which  for  want  of  pruning  had  ceased 
to  produce;  and  the  garden  flowers  growing  neglectedly 
—  all  told  of  decay  and  ruin.  From  the  remains  of  the 
fountain  two  clear  streams  of  water  still  issued,  and  from 
the  little  rivulet  they  formed,  bordered  with  cress  as  green 
as  an  emerald,  a  lazy  fish  looked  deliberately  up  at  me 
without  moving  —  so  unaccustomed  to  man  as  not  to  fear 
him.  Just  before  the  American  conquest  this  Mission  had 
harbored  an  industrious  Indian  population  of  several  thou 
sand.  It  had  been  occupied  by  our  troops  as  a  military 
post  during  the  Mexican  War  and  for  some  time  after  its 
close.  When  it  ceased  to  be  so  used  the  Government,  as  I 
have  heard  General  Beale  say,  caused  an  estimate  to  be 
made  of  the  expense  of  repairing  and  restoring  it  to  its 
former  condition.  The  figures  were  two  millions  of  dol- 


Santa  Ynez,  Santa  Barbara  County. 


The  Missions  of  Alta  California       121 

lars,  and  the  project  of  repairing  was,  of  course,  given 
over. 

It  stands  there  to-day,  magnificent,  even  in  its  ruins,  a 
monument  of  the  piety,  devotion,   industry,   and   disinter- 


Pta.d  la  Concep'i^'V/':  ...  Pres'o.d  BarVa 

Pta.d  PeJerna1esjjC<Mi^--0M.S.Biienaventura 
7^  *uf  ^g£W>  ,  OM.S.G.V1. 


'CapistrUaTo         ojUB-Pedroy  S.Pab'o 
Presi Jo  »al .  La  Pur'ma  Con'oa 


Map  of  the  Coast  Line,  Drawn  in  1787. 

estedness  of  the  venerable  monks  who  wear  the  habit  and 
cord  of  St.  Francis,  and  who  were  the  first  colonists  of 
Alta  California. 


PIONEER   SPANISH   FAMILIES   IN    CALIFORNIA 
BY  CHARLES  HOWARD  SHINN 

WITH    SPECIAL    REFERENCE    TO    THE    VALLEJOS 

The  most  attractive  literary  material  left  in  California 
is  to  be  found  in  the  recollections  and  traditions  of  de 
scendants  of  the  pioneer  Spanish  families.  But  these  men 
and  women  must  be  met  with  sympathy  for  their  misfor 
tunes,  and  with  an  unfeigned  interest  in  the  old  ranch  and 
Mission  days.  As  soon  as  their  conlidence  is  fairly  won 
they  tell  all  they  know,  with  almost  childlike  eagerness  U 
help  in  the  restoration  of  the  past.  One  immediately  ob 
serves  the  great  stress  laid  upon  family  connections,  the 
pleasure  taken  in  stories  of  former  times,  and  the  especial 
reverence  for  the  founders  of  the  province,  the  governors 
and  other  officials,  and  the  heads  of  the  Missions.  Pol 
itics,  though  of  course  on  an  extremely  small  scale,  occu 
pies  a  large  part  of  the  recollections  of  the  older  men,  and 
the  animosities  of  the  petty  revolutions  of  half  a  century 
ago,  of  the  years  just  before  the  American  conquest,  and 
of  the  conquest  itself,  still  divide  families  from  each  other. 

It  is  remarkable  how  many  of  the  daughters  of  the  best 
families  of  the  old  California  towns  married  Americans 
and  Englishmen  of  standing.  In  the  Carrillo  family  four 
daughters  married  foreigners;  the  Ortegas,  Noriegas,  and 
many  others  showed  a  similar  record.  The  grace,  beauty, 
and  modesty  of  the  women  of  the  time  were  the  aclmira- 

122 


Pioneer  Spanish  Families 


123 


tion  of  every  visitor.  The  freedom  from  care,  the  out 
door  life  and  the  constant  exercise,  and  the  perfect  climate 
of  California  had  re-created  the  Andalusian  type  of  loveli 
ness.  In  the  Ortega  family,  for  instance,  the  women,  who 
all  had  brown  hair  and  eyes  and  were  of  pure  Castilian 
stock,  were  so  renowned  for  their  beauty  that  their  fame 
extended  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  General  Ramirez  came 
from  there  with  letters  of  introduction  to  win  a  daughter 
of  the  Ortegas. 

A  multitude  of  stories  of  the  social  life  of  the  Spanish 
period  might  be  told  here,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  give  the 
outline  as  told  by  the  descendants  of  those  old  families. 
Each  town  on  the  coast  was  the  center  of  the  hide  and  tal 
low  trade  for  a  hundred  miles  or  more.  The  low  adobe 
stores  there  held  piles  of  costly  and  beautiful  goods  in  the 
days  of  which  Farnham  and  Dana  wrote  —  the  days  when 
the  great  cattle  princes  came  from  their  ranches  to  hold 
festival.  The  young 
cavaliers  rode  in  on 
fiery  but  well-trained 
and  gaily  capari 
soned  horses,  and  all 
the  wonderful  feats 
of  horsemanship  of 
as  fine  a  race  of  ri 
ders  as  the  world  has 
ever  seen  were  per 
formed  daily  on 
mesa  and  sea-beach 
and  plaza.  But  the 
home  life  of  these 
°Teat  families  was  Early  Spanish  Don,  in  Old  Spanish  riding 


124  A  New  Nation 

simplicity  itself.  In  many  a  Spanish  house  there  was  nc 
fireplace,  window,  or  chimney.  The  fire  for  cooking  was- 
built  on  a  clay  floor,  partly  roofed,  outside  of  the  mail 
building.  The  household  utensils  were  few  —  a  copper 
or  iron  kettle,  a  slab  of  rock  on  which  to  pound  corn  or 
wheat,  a  soapstone  griddle  for  the  tortillas.  Dishes,  table 
ware,  and  furniture  came  slowly,  and  were  of  the  mosi. 
simple  description.  For  years  a  raw  hide  stretched  on  the 
floor  with  a  blanket  spread  over  it  formed  the  usual  be( 
in  early  California.  Everything  was  kept  exquisitely  clean, 
and  though  the  Spanish  families  learned  to  spend  more  or 
their  houses  and  belongings,  they  seemed  to  look  upon  suci. 
things  as  only  affording  opportunities  for  a  more  generous 
hospitality. 

In  the  old  days  there  was  not  a  hotel  in  California,  am 
it  was  considered  a  grievous  offense  even  for  a  stranger, 
much  more  for  a  friend,  to  pass  by  a  ranch  without  stop 
ping.  Fresh  horses  were  always  furnished,  and  in  mam 
cases  on  record  when  strangers  appeared  to  need  financial 
help  a  pile  of  uncounted  silver  was  left  in  the  sleeping  apart 
ment,  and  they  wrere  given  to  understand  that  they  were  to 
take  all  they  needed.  This  money  was  covered  with  a 
cloth,  and  it  was  a  point  of  honor  not  to  count  it  before 
hand  nor  afterwards.  It  was  "  guest  silver,"  and  the  cus 
tom  continued  until  its  abuse  by  travelers  compelled  the 
native  Californians  to  abandon  it.  Among  themselves  no 
one  was  ever  allowed  to  suffer  or  struggle  for  kick  of  help. 
The  late  Dr.  Nicholas  Den,  of  Santa  Barbara,  who  mar 
ried  into  the  Ortega  family,  once  needed  money  to  earn- 
through  a  speculation,  and  thought  of  going  to  Los  Angeles 
to  borrow  it.  Old  Father  Narciso,  hearing  of  the  matter, 
sent  his  Indian  boy  to  him  with  a  "  cora,"  or  four-gallon 


Pioneer  Spanish  Families 


125 


The  Camulos  Ranch, —  the  scene  of  H.  H.'s  "  Ramona." 

tule  basket,  full  of  gold,  and  the  message  that  he  ought  to 
come  to  his  priest  whenever  he  needed  help. 

The  collections  of  "  Documents  relating  to  the  History 
of  California  "  made  by  General  Vallejo  and  his  brother 
Don  J.  J.  Vallejo,  and  now  in  the  Bancroft  library,  and 
the  very  graphic  and  careful  series  of  manuscript  notes 
and  memoranda  by  General  Vallejo,  entitled  "  Historia  de 
California,"  all  cast  light  upon  the  social  and  economic 
conditions  in  these  Arcadian  days.  A  very  large  number 
of  the  old  families,  such  as  the  Castros,  Picos,  Arces,  and 
Peraltas,  and  many  of  the  Americans  who  had  married 
native  Calif ornians,  furnished  manuscripts,  letters,  and 
various  documents  of  permanent  value.  In  fact  it  may  be 
doubted  if  the  pioneer  period  of  any  other  American  State 
has  had  a  more  complete  mass  of  original  authoritative 
data  made  ready  for  the  historian's  use.  Much  still  re 
mains  to  be  collected  from  first  hands,  and  many  minor 
historical  questions  will  probably  be  solved  by  documents 


126 


A  New  Nation 


An  early  mansion. 

still  held  by  the  native  California!!  families,  who  treasure 
every  scrap  of  written  paper. 

The  link  between  the  old  and  the  new,  between  the  quie 
and  happy  pastoral  age  of  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  the  age  of  American  growth  and  change  thai; 
followed  fast  on  the  conquest,  was  that  remarkable  man. 
General  Mariano  Guadalupe  Vallejo,  whose  children,  as  lic 
ence  told  me,  "  were  born  under  three  administrations  — 
Spanish,  Mexican,  and  American."  At  the  age  of  sixteen 
he  was  an  officer  in  the  army  and  the  private  secretary  of 
the  governor  of  California.  In  1829,  when  only  twenty- 
one,  he  became  lieutenant-commander  of  the  northern  de 
partment,  which  included  all  the  country  north  of  Santa 
Cruz,  and  made  his  headquarters  at  the  presidio.  Here  he 
organized  the  first  town  government  of  Yerba  Buena,  and 
for  five  years  exercised  both  civil  and  military  functions 
there.  The  Solis  rebellion  against  Governor  Echeandia. 
who  had  removed  the  seat  of  government  from  Monterey 
to  San  Diego,  began  in  the  fall  of  1829,  and  Vallejo  aided 
in  the  defeat  of  the  insurgents  at  Santa  Barbara.  He  was 


Pioneer  Spanish  Families  127 

a  member  of  the  territorial  deputation  in  1831,  and 
brought  articles  of  impeachment  against  Governor  Victoria, 
who  was  defeated  and  driven  from  California  in  the  revo 
lution  which  followed.  The  next  year  General  Vallejo 
married  Senorita  Francisca  Benicia  Carrillo,  by  whom  he 
had  seventeen  children,  nine  of  whom  are  now  living. 

By  1840  the  young  lieutenant  had  reached  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-general,  and  was  the  one  man  in  California  to 
whom  the  entire  province  turned  with  perfect  confidence 
in  every  emergency.  When  Gutierrez  \vas  deposed  Val 
lejo  took  control  of  affairs,  and  he  made  his  nephew  Al- 
varaclo  civil  governor,  retaining  military  control  himself. 
Vallejo  then  founded  the  town  of  Sonoma,  making  it  his 
military  headquarters,  and  spent  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 


Washing  day  on  a  ranch. 


128 


A  New  Nation 


million  dollars  there.  He  sent  to  Mexico  for  a  printing 
press  and  type,  set  up  with  his  own  hands  his  orders  and 
proclamations,  and  printed  and  bound  several  pamphlets. 
This  was  in  1839.  The  famous  Zamorano  press  of  Mon 
terey,  which  began  work  in  November,  1834,  with  carnival 
ball  invitations,  had  printed  the  "  Catecismo  "  and  many 
public  documents,  which  are  much  prized  by  collectors. 
Paper  was  so  scarce  that  the  proof-sheets  and  defective 
prints  were  saved  and  used  for  fly-leaves  of  the  curious 
little  arismeticas  and  other  text-books  that  were  issued  i 
few  years  later  for  the  schools  of  the  province. 

One  has  to  go  back  to  the  days  of  the  famous  Spanis  i 
"  marches,"  or  frontier  towns  built  and  defended  in  Spain's 
heroic  age  by  her  proudest  knights,  to  find  a  fit  parallel  i  i 
history  to  the  position  held  by  General  Vallejo  during  the 
closing  years  of  the  Mexican  rule  in  California.  He  had 
absolute  sway  for  a  hundred  miles  or  more,  and  he  "  kept 
the  border."  His  men  rode  on  horseback  to  Monterey  and 
to  Captain  Sutter's  fort  on  the  Sacramento,  bringing  him 


An  adobe  in   Sonoma. 


Pioneer  Spanish  Families  129 

news  and  carrying  his  letters.  Spanish  families  colonized 
the  fertile  valleys  under  his  protection,  and  Indians  came 
and  built  in  the  shadows  of  the  Sonoma  Mission.  He 


•T&/TT™ 


w 


Chariot,  early  in  Nineteenth  Century. 

owned,  as  he  believed  by  unassailable  title,  the  largest  and 
finest  ranch  in  the  province,  and  he  dispensed  a  hospitality 
so  generous  and  universal  that  it  was  admired  and  extolled 
even  among  the  old  Spanish  families.  J.  Quinn  Thorn 
ton,  who  visited  the  coast  in  1848  and  published  his  ex 
periences,  says:  "Governor-General  Vallejo  owns  1,000 
horses  that  are  broken  to  the  saddle  and  bridle,  and  9,000 
that  are  not  broken.  Broken  horses  readily  bring  one 
hundred  dollars  apiece,  but  the  unbroken  ones  can  be  pur 
chased  for  a  trivial  sum."  More  and  more  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  epoch  and  the  days  of  the  conquest  General 
Vallejo  became  the  representative  man  of  his  people,  and 
so  he  has  received,  among  many  of  the  old  families,  the 
reproachful  name  of  a  traitor  to  California  and  to  his  na 
tion.  The  quiet  intensity  of  this  bitterness,  even  to-day,  is 
a  startling  thing.  I  have  seen  men  of  pure  blood,  famous 
in  provincial  history,  leave  the  room  at  the  name  of  Val 
lejo. 


OSCEOLA 
BY  MAJOR-GENERAL  O.  O.  HOWARD 

I  suspect  "  Uncle  Sam  "  was  born 
July  4th,  1776.  If  so,  he  was  still  a 
young  man,  only  twenty-eight  years 
old,  when  Osceola  came  into  the 
world.  The  Red  Stick  tribe  of  the 
Creek  Indians  had  a  camp  on  tlie 
bank  of  the  Chattahoochee.  The 
water  of  this  river  is  colored  by  the 
roots  of  trees,  shrubs,  and  vines 
which  grow  along  its  sluggish  cur 
rent,  and  so  it  is  very  black.  Osce- 
ola's  mother,  living  near  this  dark  river,  named  her 
\  baby  As-sa-he-ola  —  black  water.  Spanish  tongues 
*  by  and  by  shortened  it  to  the  beautiful  and  Latinlike 
name  of  Osceola.  Osceola's  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a 
Creek  Indian  chieftain.  His  father  is  said  to  have  been  an 
Indian  trader  born  in  England.  There  were  three  children, 
two  girls  and  the  boy.  Osceola's  mother,  the  proud  and 
high-tempered  Indian  princess,  became  angry  for  some  rea 
son  and  taking  her  son  went  into  the  wilderness  of  southern 
Georgia  and  joined  her  own  people,  while  the  father  took 
his  two  daughters  and  passed  over  to  the  Far  West.  The 
princess  taught  Osceola  both  English  and  her  own  language, 
but  she  had  come  to  hate  the  white  people  and  did  not  fail 
to  bring  up  her  son  with  the  same  unkind  feelings. 

130 


Osceola  .131 

After  a  time  troubles  arose  between  our  white  settlers 
and  the  Creek  Indians  in  Georgia,  and  Uncle  Sam  sent  Gen 
eral  Jackson  with  an  army  to  drive  the  Indians  further 
south. 

At  this  time  Osceola  was  only  fourteen  years  old ;  yet  he 
was  so  smart  and  so  fierce  that  he  became  a  leader  of  his 
people.  Under  him  they  fought  hard,  and  were  driven  at 
last  to  the  middle  of  Florida,  where,  not  far  from  one  of 
Uncle  Sam's  stockades,  called  Fort  King,  the  tribe  joined 
the  Seminole  Indians,  who  lived  there.  These  Florida 
Indians,  the  Seminoles,  were  really  a  part  of  the  Creek 
nation  and  spoke  almost  the  same  language.  They  soon 
became  fond  of  Osceola,  and  as  their  head  chief,  Micanopy, 
was  very  old,  in  all  fighting  Osceola  became  the  real  leader. 
He  had  two  underchiefs,  one  named  Jumper  and  the  other 
Alligator.  They  were  as  fierce  and  hated  the  white  people 
as  much  as  he  did,  and  enjoyed  doing  all  he  told  them  to 
do.  As  Osceola  grew  older  he  had  a  fine,  manly  bearing 
and  a  deep,  soft,  musical  voice.  He  quickly  learned  a  new 
language,  and  was  very  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  bow,  though 
he  liked  better  the  white  man's  rirle  with  powder  and  ball. 
It  is  said  he  always  hit  what  he  aimed  at. 

For  fifteen  years  Osceola  went  from  tribe  to  tribe  and 
from  chief  to  chief  all  over  Florida  and  other  States  of  the 
South,  wherever  he  could  find  Indians.  He  always  spoke 
against  the  white  people,  saying  they  were  two-faced  and 
would  not  treat  the  Indians  with  justice  and  mercy.  I  be 
lieve  that  Uncle  Sam  really  had  a  good  feeling  for  his  red 
children ;  but  the  white  people  were  very  few  in  Florida, 
and  they  were  afraid  of  the  Indians  and  wanted  to  send 
them  away  to  the  West.  So  they  asked  Uncle  Sam  to  send 
his  officers  and  agents  to  make  a  bargain  with  the  redmen. 


132  A  New  Nation 

This  bargain  came  about  and  was  called  the  "  Treaty  of 
Payne's  Landing."  It  was  signed  at  Payne's  Landing  on 
the  Ocklawaha  River,  May  9,  1832,  by  some  of  the  Indian 
chiefs  and  by  Uncle  Sam's  white  officers  and  agents.  It 
was  agreed  that  all  the  Indians  were  to  go  far  away  beyond 
the  Mississippi  River  before  the  end  of  the  year,  and  that 
Uncle  Sam  should  give  them  $3,000  each  year  and  other 
things  which  were  written  in  the  treaty.  Only  a  few  of 
the  Indians  really  agreed  to  go,  and  Osceola,  now  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  was  very  much  against  giving  away  the 
Seminole  country.  He  aroused  the  whole  nation,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  head  men  were  with  him,  and  he  gathered 
good  warriors,  divided  them  into  companies  and  drilled 
them.  Osceola  called  an  Indian  assembly,  and  rising  to  his 
full  height  took  a  strong  bow  in  his  right  hand  and  an  ar 
row  in  his  left,  and  said,  "  I  will  not  sign  a  treaty  to  give 
away  the  Indians'  land,  and  I  will  kill  the  chiefs  or  any  fol 
lowers  who  sign  it." 

Two  years  passed,  and  then  some  Seminole  chieftains, 
who  had  gone  beyond  the  Mississippi,  returned.  They  re 
ported  against  the  removal  of  the  Indians,  and  the  Indian 
Agent  called  a  meeting  of  well-known  Indians  and  white 
men  to  talk  it  over.  The  old  chief,  Micanopy,  spoke  for 
the  Indians,  but  Osceola  sat  near  and  whispered  into  his 
ear  what  to  answer  the  Indian  Agent.  Micanopy  was  old 
and  wanted  peace.  He,  Jumper,  Alligator,  and  others  said 
they  never  meant  to  sign  away  their  land,  but  only  agreed 
to  send  some  men  to  look  over  the  new  country  before  they 
decided  what  to  do.  The  meeting  became  very  excited,  and 
at  last  Osceola  sprang  to  his  feet  and  defied  the  agent,  say 
ing  in  a  taunting  manner,  "  Neither  I  nor  my  warriors 
care  if  we  never  receive  another  dollar  from  the  Great 


Osceola 


133 


Father."  The  agent,  spreading  the  treaty  upon  the  table, 
remonstrated  with  Osceola,  but  the  fierce  chief  drew  his 
long  knife  from  its  sheath  and  cried:  "  The  only  treaty  J 


Osceola. 


will  execute  is  with  this,"  and  he  drove  the  knife  through 
and  through  the  paper  into  the  table. 

Soon  after  this  Osceola  had  an  interview  with  Captain 
Ming  of  the  Coast  Survey  near  Fort  King,  but  he  declined 


134  A  New  Nation 

every  civility  and  said,  "  I  will  not  break  bread  with  a 
white  man."  A  formal  council  was  arranged,  but  here 
Osceola  in  a  threatening  manner  seized  a  surveyor's  chain 
and  declared  in  a  loud  voice,  "If  you  cross  my  land  I  will 
break  this  chain  into  as  many  pieces  as  there  are  links  in  it, 
and  then  throw  the  pieces  so  far  you  can  never  get  them 
together  again."  The  Indian  Agent,  in  desperation,  sent 
for  Osceola  and  ordered  him  to  sign  the  papers  for  trans 
porting  the  Indians,  but  he  answered,  "  I  will  not."  When 
told  that  General  Jackson,  the  President,  would  soon  teach 
him  better,  Osceola  replied,  "  I  care  no  more  for  Jackson 
than  for  you." 

The  Indian  Agent  knowing  that  Osceola  stirred  up  his 
people,  had  him  put  in  prison  at  the  fort,  but  he  escaped  by 
making  promises  to  his  guards.  As  soon  as  he  was  free 
again  he  began  to  get  his  warriors  ready  for  battle.  He 
went  from  place  to  place  very  fast,  hardly  stopping  for 
food,  till  he  had  a  large  number  of  braves  gathered  near 
Fort  King.  Their  knives  were  kept  sharp,  but  sheathed, 
and  rifles  were  kept  on  hand  with  enough  powder  and  balls. 
Five  Indians  who  went  to  get  food  were  caught  and  publicly 
whipped.  Soon  after,  an  Indian  was  killed ;  then  three 
white  men  were  wounded  and  a  white  mail-carrier  killed. 
The  chief,  Emaltha,  who  was  friendly  to  the  treaty,  was 
assassinated.  The  \var  had  begun. 

It  was  now  1836  and  Osceola  was  thirty  years  old. 
Hearing  that  Major  Dade,  with  110  officers  and  men,  was 
to  pass  along  the  military  road  from  Fort  Brooke  at  Tampa 
Bay,  Osceola  send  Micanopy  and  Jumper  with  800  of  his 
warriors  to  wait  in  ambush  for  them.  It  was  so  well  ar 
ranged  that  the  wdiole  command  except  three  men  were 
killed.  These  three  men  escaped  to  Tampa  and  told  the 


Osceola  135 

terrible  story.  Osceola  had  himself  remained  with  a  small 
force  near  Fort  King,  for  he  wished  to  kill  the  Indian  Agent, 
his  long-time  enemy.  Lieutenant  Smith  and  the  agent  were 
walking  quietly  toward  the  sutler's  shop,  a  half  mile  from 
the  stockade,  when  a  number  of  Indians  set  upon  them  and 
both  were  killed.  The  agent  was  pierced  by  fourteen  bul 
lets  and  the  lieutenant  by  five.  The  sutler  and  four  others 
were  killed,  and  the  store  and  outbuildings  burned.  The 
fire  gave  the  first  alarm  at  the  fort.  In  the  meantime, 
Osceola's  warriors  under  Micanopy  and  Jumper  had  been 
so  prompt  that  the  first  battle  was  over  before  their  leader 
joined  them.  Then  the  dreadful  war  went  on.  Osceola 
met  General  Clinch  with  1,000  regular  soldiers  at  the  cross 
ing  of  the  Withlacoochee  River.  There  wrere  not  a  thou 
sand  Indians,  but  Osceola  brought  them  into  battle  like  an 
experienced  general.  His  men  followed  his  own  brave 
example  and  fought  with  tiger-like  ferocity.  Osceola  is 
said  to  have  slain  forty  of  our  officers  and  men  with  his 
own  hand.  The  Indians  fought  till  their  ammunition  was 
gone,  and  then  with  bows  and  arrows  and  knives. 

After  this,  Osceola  went  through  many  battles,  but  he 
never  despaired  and  never  surrendered  till  the  fearful  battle 
came  when  the  Indians  were  defeated  by  General  Taylor. 
Then  the  waters  ran  with  the  blood  of  Uncle  Sam's  quarrel 
ing  children  and  Osceola's  men  were  scattered  to  the  four 
winds.  Even  then  Osceola  would  not  have  been  captured 
but  for  an  act  of  treachery.  He  was  asked  to  come  to  a 
conference  at  a  camp  not  far  from  St.  Augustine.  He 
came  with  some  of  his  warriors,  trusting  to  the  word  of 
the  commander,  but  he  and  his  companions  were  at  once 
surrounded  and  carried  to  St.  Augustine  as  prisoners  of 
war.  Our  officers  said  it  was  right  to  do  this  because 


He  drove  his  knife  through  and  through  the  paper. 


Osceola  137 

Osceola  had  not  kept  his  promises  in  peace  or  war,  but  we 
do  not  like  to  think  that  the  officers  and  agents  of  Uncle 
Sam  broke  their  word,  even  if  an  Indian  chief  did  not  keep 
his.  Though  Osceola  fought  in  the  Indian  way,  and  hated 
the  treatment  that  the  white  people  gave  the  Indians,  still, 
we  know  he  did  not  hate  the  white  women  and  children, 
and  constantly  told  his  warriors  to  treat  women  and 
children  with  kindness. 

After  he  was  taken  to  St.  Augustine  he  was  in  a  sad  con 
dition.  His  spirit  was  broken  by  defeat  and  imprisonment, 
and  he  grew  feeble  as  he  realized  there  was  no  escape. 
When  he  was  taken  to  Fort  Moultrie  in  Charleston  Harbor 
he  knew  that  he  should  never  see  his  own  land  -again. 
Then  he  refused  food,  would  see  no  visitors,  and  died, 
broken-hearted,  after  a  short  illness,  aged  thirty-three.  He 
was  a  brave  enemy,  and  respected  as  he  had  been  by  the 
Indian  nation,  his  manly  nature  was  too  proud  to  be  long 
under  the  control  of  the  white  man. 


THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 
BY  JOHN  BACH  MCMASTER 

WEBSTER'S  FATHER 

Ebenezer  Webster  selected  Stevenstown  as  his  future 
home,  took  up  land,  and  built  a  log  cabin,  to  which,  a  year 
later,  he  brought  a  wife.  The  town  was  then  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  frontier,  and  as  his  cabin  was  farther  north  than 
any  other,  not  a  habitation  save  those  of  the  red  man  lay 
between  him  and  Canada.  In  this  wilderness  home  five 
children  were  born  before  the  mother  died,  after  ten  years 
of  wedded  life,  and  the  father  brought  to  it  as  his  second 
wife  Abigail  Eastman. 

Wringing  a  livelihood  from  such  a  soil  in  such  a  climate 
was  hard  enough  at  any  time,  but  the  task  was  now  made 
more  difficult  still  by  the  opening  of  the  long  struggle  be 
tween  the  colonies  and  the  mother-country,  and  the  constant 
demand  on  his  time  for  services,  both  civil  and  military. 
Now  we  see  him,  after  the  fights  at  Concord  and  Lexing 
ton,  hurrying  at  the  head  of  his  company  to  join  the  forces 
around  Boston ;  now  home  again  to  serve  as  delegate  to  the 
convention  which  framed  the  first  constitution  of  New 
Hampshire.  Now  we  see  him,  a  true  minuteman,  resign 
ing  his  captaincy  and  hastening  to  serve  under  Washington, 
in  an  hour  of  dire  need  at  White  Plains;  then  home  again 
to  become  a  member  of  a  committee  to  prevent  forestalling 
and  to  regulate  the  prices  of  commodities.  Now  we  be- 

138 


The  Early  Life  of  Daniel  Webster     139 

hold  him  at  the  head  of  seventy  men  pushing  through  the 
wilderness  for  the  relief  of  Ticonderoga;  now  returning 
when  he  hears  of  the  evacuation  of  the  fort,  and  reaching 
home  just  in  time  to  lead  back  another  band  that  fought 
gallantly  at  Bennington.  Once  again  at  home  \ve  find  him 
at  the  head  of  more  committees  to  regulate  prices,  to  enlist 
the  town's  quota  for  the  Continental  army,  and  finally  in 
command  of  four  companies  raised  to  aid  in  the  defense  of 
West  Point.  Public  services  of  such  various  sorts  bespeak 
a  man  with  a  will  not  easily  bent,  with  a  capacity  to  do  equal 
to  any  emergency,  with  a  patriotism  rising  above  all  consid 
erations  of  self;  a  man  courageous,  resourceful,  self-reliant, 
and  commanding  the  entire  confidence  and  respect  of  his 
fellows. 

By  the  time  Cornwallis  surrendered  and  the  fighting 
ended,  three  more  children  had  been  added  to  the  little 
flock.  The  log  cabin  had  now  become  too  small,  and  a  farm 
house  was  built  near  by.  It  was  the  typical  New  England 
farm-house  of  the  day  —  one  story  high,  clapboarded,  with 
the  chimney  in  the  center,  the  door  in  the  middle  of  the  south 
side,  four  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  and  a  lean-to  in  the 
rear  for  a  kitchen;  and  in  this  house,  on  January  18,  1782, 
another  son  was  born,  and  named  Daniel. 

When  the  child  was  a  year  and  more  old  the  parents 
moved  to  the  banks  of  the  Merrimac,  to  Elms  Farm,  a 
place  of  some  local  interest,  for  on  it,  within  a  cabin  whose 
site  was  plainly  visible  in  Webster's  day,  had  been  per 
petrated  one  of  the  many  Indian  massacres  that  make  up  so 
much  of  frontier  history,  and  near  this  had  stood  one  of  the 
last  of  the  forts  built  to  protect  the  inhabitants  of  Salisbury 
and  the  neighboring  towns  against  the  savages. 


140  A  New  Nation 

THE    BOY    WEBSTER 

As  the  boy  grew  in  years  and  stature  his  life  was  power 
fully  affected  by  the  facts  that  he  was  the  youngest  son  and 
ninth  child  in  a  family  of  ten ;  that  his  health  was  far  from 
good;  that  he  showed  tastes  and  mental  traits  that  stood 
out  in  marked  contrast  with  those  of  his  brothers  and  sis 
ters;  and  that  he  was,  from  infancy,  the  pet  of  the  family. 
Such  daily  work  as  a  farmer's  lad  was  then  made  to  do  was 
not  for  him.  Yet  he  was  expected  to  do  something,  and 
might  have  been  seen  barefooted,  in  frock  and  trousers, 
astride  of  the  horse  that  dragged  the  plow  between  the  rows 
of  corn,  or  raking  hay,  or  binding  the  wheat  the  reapers  cut. 
or  following  the  cows  to  pasture  in  the  morning  and  home 
again  at  night,  or  tending  logs  in  his  father's  sawmill. 
When  such  work  was  to  be  done  it  was  his  custom  to  take  a 
book  along,  set  the  log,  hoist  the  gates,  and  while  the  saw 
passed  slowly  through  the  tree-trunk,  an  operation  which, 
in  those  days,  consumed  some  twenty  minutes,  he  would  set 
tle  himself  comfortably  and  read. 

He  was  taught  to  read,  he  tells  us,  by  his  mother  and 
sister  at  so  early  an  age  that  he  never  knew  the  time  when 
he  could  not  peruse  the  Bible  with  ease.  With  this  humble 
beginning,  his  further  education  was  intrusted  to  the  village 
schoolmaster. 

Most  parents  were  then  content  to  send  their  boys  and 
girls  when  school  was  kept  in  the  house  nearest  to  their 
homes.  But  the  father  of  Daniel  was  determined  to  give 
his  son  the  best  education  the  land  afforded,  so  he  was 
made  to  follow  the  master  from  place  to  place.  When 
school  was  held  in  the  middle  house,  but  a  few  miles  off,  he 
walked  to  and  fro  each  day;  when  at  the  western  end  of 


The  Early  Life  of  Daniel  Webster     141 

the  district,  Daniel  was  boarded 
out  in  some  family  near  by. 
When  no  schooling  was  to  be 
had  the  boy  roamed  the  woods 
and  fields  with  a  rough  old 
British  sailor  who  taught  him  to 
row  and  to  fish,  and  filled  his 
head  with  stories  of  bloody 
fights  and  strange  adventures  on 
land  and  sea. 

In    1791,    when    Daniel    had 

,       •  ,  Daniel  Webster, 

just  turned  nine,  a  new  honor 

which  deeply  affected  his  later  career  came  to  his  father. 
The  many  evidences  of  confidence  and  esteem  a  grateful 
community  had  bestowed  on  Ebenezer  Webster  in  the  dark 
days  of  the  Revolution  did  not  cease  with  the  war.  The 
leader  in  strife  remained  a  leader  in  peace,  was  sent  year 
after  year  first  to  one  and  then  to  the  other  branch  of  the 
Assembly,  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention  which  ratified 
the  Federal  Constitution,  and  finally,  in  1791,  was  placed  on 
the  bench  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  county  in 
which  he  resided.  These  courts  were  composed  of  a  presid 
ing  judge,  always  an  able  lawyer,  and  two  side  justices, 
usually  laymen  of  hard  common  sense  and  sterling  integrity ; 
and  it  was  to  one  of  these  side  justiceships  that  Ebenezer 
Webster  was  appointed.  The  office  was  one  of  honor  and 
dignity,  and  carried  with  it  an  annual  salary  of  several 
hundred  dollars,  just  enough  to  enable  the  father  to  go  on 
with  his  long-meditated  plan  for  the  education  of  Daniel. 

Of  his  five  sons,  Ebenezer,  David,  and  Joseph  had  grown 
to  manhood,  were  settled  in  life,  and  long  past  the  school 
age.  To  educate  the  two  remaining,  Ezekiel  and  Daniel, 


142  A  New  Nation 

was  beyond  his  means.  But  if  his  longing  to  see  at  least  one 
son  rise  above  the  humble  calling  of  a  farmer  was  to  be 
gratified,  it  must  be  one  of  these,  and  to  choose  which  cost 
the  father  a  bitter  struggle.  He  met  it  with  the  unfaltering 
courage  which  marked  the  man,  made  his  decision,  and  one 
day  in  1795  announced  his  determination.  "  On  a  hot  day 
in  July,"  said  Webster,  describing  the  scene  many  years 
later,  "  it  must  have  been  in  one  of  the  last  years  of  Wash- 
ington's  administration,  I  was  making  hay  with  my  father, 
just  where  I  now  see  a  remaining  elm-tree.  About  the  mid 
dle  of  the  forenoon  the  Hon.  Abiel  Foster,  M.  C.  who  lived 
in  Canterbury,  six  miles  off,  called  at  the  house  and  came 
into  the  field  to  see  my  father. 

When  he  was  gone  my  father  called  me  to  him,  and  we 
sat  down  beneath  the  elm  on  a  haycock.  He  said :  '  My 
son,  that  is  a  worthy  man;  he  is  a  member  of  Con 
gress;  he  goes  to  Philadelphia  and  gets  six  dollars  a  day, 
while  I  toil  here.  It  is  because  he  had  an  education 
which  I  never  had.  If  I  had  had  his  education  I  should 
have  been  in  Philadelphia  in  his  place.  I  came  near  it  as  it 
was.  But  I  missed  it,  and  now  I  must  work  here.'  '  My 
dear  father,'  said  I,  '  you  shall  not  work ;  brother  and 
I  will  work  for  you,  and  we  will  wear  our  hands  out,  and 
you  shall  rest.'  And  I  remember  to  have  cried,  and  I  cry 
now  at  the  recollection.  '  My  child,'  said  he,  'it  is  of  no 
importance  to  me.  I  now  live  but  for  my  children.  I 
could  not  give  your  elder  brothers  the  advantages  of  knowl 
edge,  but  I  can  do  something  for  you.  Exert  yourself,  im 
prove  your  opportunities,  learn,  learn,  and  when  I  am  gone 
you  will  not  need  to  go  through  the  hardships  which  I  have 
undergone,  and  which  have  made  me  an  old  man  before  my 
time.'  " 


The  Early  Life  of  Daniel  Webster     143 

EDUCATION 

Almost  a  year  passed,  however,  before  the  plan  so  long 
cherished  was  fairly  started,  and  Daniel,  dressed  in  a  brand- 
new  home-made  suit  and  astride  a  side-saddle,  rode  with  his 
father  to  Exeter  to  be  entered  at  the  famous  academy 
founded  by  John  Phillips.  The  principal  then  and  forty 
years  thereafter  was  Dr.  Benjamin  Abbot,  one  of  the  great 
est  teachers  our  country  has  yet  produced.  As  the  doctor 
was  ill,  the  duty  of  examining  the  new  pupil  fell  to  Joseph 
S.  Buckminster,  then  an  usher  at  the  academy,  but  destined 
to  influence  strongly  the  religious  life  of  Ne\v  England.  It 
was  the  custom  of  the  doctor,  we  are  told,  to  conduct  the 
examination  of  applicants  with  pompous  ceremony,  and  that, 
imitating  him,  young  Buckminster  summoned  Webster  to 
his  presence,  put  on  his  hat,  and  said,  "  Well,  sir,  what  is 
your  age  ? "  "  Fourteen,"  was  the  reply.  "  Take  this 
Bible,  my  lad,  and  read  that  chapter."  The  passage  given 
him  was  St.  Luke's  dramatic  description  of  the  conspiring  of 
Judas  with  the  chief  priests  and  scribes,  of  the  Last  Supper, 
of  the  betrayal  by  Judas,  of  the  three  denials  of  Peter,  and 
of  the  scene  in  the  house  of  the  high  priest.  But  young 
Webster  was  equal  to  the  test,  and  read  the  whole  passage  to 
the  end  in  a  voice  and  with  a  fervor  such  as  Master  Buck 
minster  had  never  listened  to  before.  "  Young  man,"  said 
he,  "  you  are  qualified  to  enter  this  institution,"  and  no  more 
questions  were  put  by  him.  The  voice  and  manner  so 
famous  in  later  life  were  even  then  strikingly  manifest. 
But  one  other  gift  of  nature  still  lay  dormant  —  he  could 
not  declaim.  Long  after  he  had  become  the  greatest  orator 
of  the  day  he  said  to  a  friend:  "  I  could  not  speak  before 
the  school.  Many  a  piece  did  I  commit  to  memory  and  re- 


144  A  New  Nation 

hearse  in  my  room  over  and  over  again,  but  when  the  day 
came,  and  the  schoolmaster  called  my  name,  and  I  saw  all 
eyes  turned  upon  my  seat,  I  could  not  raise  myself  from  it. 
When  the  occasion  was  over  I  went  home  and  wept  bitter 
tears  of  mortification." 


The  Second  Academy  building,   Phillips  Exeter  Academy, 
as  it  stood  when  attended  by  Daniel  Webster  in  1796. 

In  August,  1797,  Webster  became  a  freshman  in  Dart 
mouth  College,  more  through  the  influence  of  Trustee  Wood 
than  by  merit.  He  had  now  reached  a  turning-point  in  his 
career.  Save  during  the  nine  months  spent  at  Phillips 
Exeter,  he  had  never  been  so  far  from  home,  had  never  been 
so  completely  thrown  on  his  own  resources,  nor  brought  in 
close  contact  with  so  many  young  men  of  his  own  age  and 
generation.  He  wras  free  to  make  of  himself  what  he 
pleased,  and  acted  accordingly  following  the  path  of 
least  resistance.  Greek  and  mathematics  he  disliked  and 
shunned ;  but  he  read  widely  in  English  literature  and  in 
history,  acquired  a  familiarity  with  Latin  and  with  Latin 
authors,  never  forgot  anything  once  acquired,  was  always 


The  Early  Life  of  Daniel  Webster     145 

able  to  display  his  knowledge  to  the  best  advantage,  was  in 
no  sense  a  student  or  a  scholar,  but  became  the  best-in 
formed  man  in  college,  and  impressed  all  who  met  him  as 
a  youth  of  uncommon  parts,  \vith  promise  of  being  a  great 
man.  "  So  much  as  I  read,"  says  he,  "  I  made  my  own. 
When  a  half -hour,  or  one  hour  at  most,  had  elapsed,  I  closed 
my  book,  and  thought  over  what  I  had  read.  If  there  was 
anything  peculiarly  interesting  or  striking  in  the  passage, 
I  endeavored  to  recall  it  and  lay  it  up  in  my  memory,  and 
commonly  could  effect  my  object.  Then  if,  in  debate  or 
conversation  afterward,  any  subject  came  up  on  which  I 
had  read  something.  I  could  talk  very  easily  so  far  as  I  had 
read,  and  there  I  was  very  careful  to  stop." 

WEBSTER'S  FIRST  FOURTH-OF-JULY  ADDRESS 

When  the  people  of  Hanover  were  casting  about  for  an 
orator  to  speak  to  them  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1800,  they 
turned  with  one  accord  to  young  Webster. 

Judged  by  the  side  of  his  later  efforts,  the  oration  de 
livered  on  that  day  was  indeed  a  weak  and  school-boy  pro 
duction.  Yet  it  is  not  beneath  the  vast  mass  of  patriotic 
speeches  to  which  our  forefathers  gladly  listened,  on  fast- 
days  and  Thanksgiving  days,  on  the  22d  of  every  February 
and  the  4th  of  every  July,  and  it  richly  deserved  the  honor 
of  publication. 

Love  of  country,  devotion  to  the  Union,  the  grandeur  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  blessings  of  a  free  government  ad 
ministered  by  the  people,  made  his  theme.  No  question  of 
State  rights  troubled  him.  "  In  the  adoption  of  our  present 
systems  of  jurisprudence,"  said  he,  "  we  see  the  powers  nec 
essary  for  government  voluntarily  flowing  from  the  people, 

their  only  origin,  and  directed  to  the  public  good,  their  only 
10 


i46 


A  New  Nation 


proper  object."  It  was  the  people  of  these  States  "  who 
engaged  in  the  transaction  which  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest 
approach  toward  human  perfection  the  political  \vorld  ever 
yet  witnessed,  and  which,  perhaps,  will  forever  stand  in  the 
history  of  mankind  without  a  parallel." 

This  was  rank  federalism ;  but  that  the  lad  should  be  a 
Federalist  was  inevitable.  He  had  been  reared  at  the  knee 
of  a  man  who  had  fought  and  toiled  and  spent  his  sub 
stance  in  the  struggle  for  independence,  who  followed  the 
leadership  of  Washington  in  peace  with  the  same  unfalter 
ing  loyalty  that  he  had  followed  it  in  war,  and  had  received 
from  his  father  a  political  creed  of  no  uncertain  kind. 
Since  coming  to  years  of  discretion  nothing  had  occurred  to 
weaken,  but  much  to  strengthen,  the  belief  so  inherited. 
He  had  seen  a  foreign  power  meddling  in  our  domestic  af 
fairs,  had  read  the  letter  in  which  Adet  threatened  the  ven 
geance  of  France  if  Mr.  Jefferson  were  not  elected,  and  had 
since  beheld  that  insolent  threat  made  good.  He  had  seen 
our  minister  to  the  French  republic  rejected,  the  X.  Y.  Z. 
commissioners  insulted,  and  the  whole  country  roused  to 

indignation  and  ring 
ing  with  the  cry : 
"Millions  for  de 
fense,  but  not  a  cent 
for  tribute."  He  had 
seen  a  provisional 
army  raised  an  d 
Washington  put  in 
command ;  he  had 
seen  the  young  men 

"Webster's  House,"  Dartmouth  College,      associate  for  defense, 
where    Darnel  Webster   roomed    when 
a  student.  an('  tne  Old  men  once 


The  Early  Life  of  Daniel  Webster     147 


2Q_ 


Daniel  Webster's  house  in   Portsmouth, 
N.  H. 


at   last    to    the    light    of    reason. 


again  mount  the  black 
cockade  of  the  Revo 
lution,  as  an  open  de 
fiance  to  those  who, 
to  their  shame,  wore 
the  tricolor  of  France ; 
he  had  seen  seaport 
after  seaport  arm  and 
equip  a  vessel  of  war, 
and  had  beheld  the 
little  navy  so  created 
triumph  over  every 
foe  and  bring  France 

All  these  things,  in  his  opinion,  took  place  because  a  large 
part  of  his  countrymen  had  been  deaf  to  the  advice  of  Wash 
ington,  had  quit  their  own  to  stand  on  foreign  ground,  and 
had  formed  in  America  a  party  warmly  devoted  to  France. 
"  But  why,"  he  asked,  "  shall  every  quarrel  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  interest  us  in  its  issue?  Why  shall  the  rise 
or  depression  of  every  party  there  produce  here  a  correspond 
ing  vibration  ?  Was  this  continent  designed  as  a  mere  satel 
lite  to  the  other?  The  natural  superiority  of  America 
clearly  indicates  that  it  was  designed  to  be  inhabited  by 
a  nobler  race  of  men,  possessing  a  superior  form  of  gov 
ernment,  superior  patriotism,  superior  talents,  and  su 
perior  virtues.  Let,  then,  the  nations  of  the  East  muster 
their  strength  in  destroying  each  other.  Let  them  aspire  to 
conquest  and  contend  for  dominion  till  their  continent  is 
deluged  in  blood.  But  let  none,  however  elated  by  victory, 
however  proud  of  triumph,  ever  presume  to  intrude  on  the 
neutral  position  assumed  by  our  country."  A  little  later 
these  ideas  found  expression  in  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 


WEBSTER  AS  THE  DEFENDER  OF  THE 
CONSTITUTION 

BY  JOHN  BACH  MCMASTER 

The  decision  of  Webster  to  remain  in  the  Senate  brought 
him  to  another  turning-point  in  his  political  career,  and  lit 
went  back  to  begin  a  new  contest  with  Calhoun  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union.  The  first  struggle  arose  over 
the  tariff,  and  ended  in  nullification.  The  second  began 
over  slavery,  and  led  to  secession.  Mr.  Benton  is  author 
ity  for  the  statement  that  when  Calhoun  went  back  to  his 
home  in  the  spring  of  1833,  disappointed  and  downhearted 
at  the  slight  support  the  South  had  given  to  the  act  of  nul 
lification,  he  told  his  friends  that  the  South  could  never  be 
united  against  the  North  on  the  question  of  the  tariff,  and 
that  the  basis  of  Southern  union  must  henceforth  be  the 
questions  that  sprang  from  slavery.  Certain  it  is  that  by 
1833  the  work  of  the  abolitionists  and  antislavery  people 
began  to  tell.  It  was  in  1831  that  the  first  number  of  the 
Liberator  appeared,  and  the  State  of  Georgia  offered  five 
thousand  dollars  to  any  one  who  would  kidnap  Garrison 
and  bring  him  to  the  State.  It  was  in  1833  that  the  Amer 
ican  Antislavery  Society  was  founded,  and  the  Telegraph, 
a  nullification  journal  published  at  Washington,  flatly 
charged  the  people  of  the  North  with  a  deliberate  purpose 
to  destroy  slavery  in  the  South.  Twenty  newspapers  in 
twenty  different  parts  of  the  North  and  the  South  at  once 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     149 

made  answer,  denied  the  charge,  and  accused  Calhoun  and 
the  Nullifiers  of  again  attempting  to  wreck  the  Union. 
"  His  object,"  said  one,  "  is  to  fan  the  flame  of  discord  and 
separate  the  South  from  the  North.  Mr.  Calhoun  has 
been  defeated  in  his  ambitious  project  of  reaching  the 
Presidency.  He  would  now  gladly  ruin  the  fair  fabric  of 
the  United  States  that  he  might  become  the  chief  of  a 
Southern  confederacy.  The  tariff  was  to  have  been  the 
pretext  for  separation.  This  having  failed,  a  new  cause  is 
sought  in  the  question  of  slavery,  and  such  miserable  fa 
natics  as  Garrison  and  wretched  publications  as  the  Liber 
ator  are  quoted  as  evidence  of  the  feeling  of  the  people  of 
the  North." 

The  fate  of  slavery  was  now  clearly  a  national  issue, 
and  in  the  Niblo's  Garden  speech  Webster  placed  himself 
on  record. 

Later  in  the  session,  Webster  came  again  to  the  defense 
of  the  Constitution,  and  in  a  speech,  famous  in  its  day,  in 
which  he  reviewed  the  political  conduct  of  Calhoun  since 
1833,  Webster  charged  him  with  a  steady  design  to  break 
up  the  Union.  "  The  honorable  member  from  South  Car 
olina,"  said  he,  "  habitually  indulges  in  charges  of  usurpa 
tion  and  oppression  against  the  Government  of  his  coun 
try.  He  daily  denounces  its  important  measures  in  the 
language  in  which  our  Revolutionary  fathers  spoke  of  the 
oppression  of  the  mother-country.  ...  A  principal 
object  in  his  late  political  movement,  the  gentleman  him 
self  tells  us,  was  to  unite  the  entire  South;  and  against 
whom  or  against  what  does  he  wish  to  unite  the  entire 
South?  ...  I  am  where  I  ever  have  been,  and  ever 
mean  to  be.  Here,  standing  on  the  platform  of  the  gen 
eral  Constitution,  a  platform  broad  enough  and  firm  enough 


150  A  New  Nation 

to  uphold  every  interest  of  the  whole  country,  I  shall  still 
be  found."  Calhoun  replied  with  a  review  of  Webster's 
conduct  since  he  entered  the  House  in  1813;  Webster  an 
swered  with  a  like  review  of  the  behavior  of  Calhoun :  and 
the  two  went  their  ways,  the  one  to  head  the  movement 
which  ended  in  secession  and  civil  war,  the  other  to  rouse 
that  spirit  of  nationality  which  put  down  secession  and  pre 
served  the  Union  of  the  States. 

The  Whig  convention  had  not  dared  to  frame  a  party 
platform ;  but  the  Democrats  furnished  one  in  the  sneer 
that  Harrison  wrould  be  more  at  home  in  a  log  cabin  guz 
zling  hard  cider  than  seated  in  the  White  House  ruling  a 
nation.  Save  the  little  red  school-house,  nothing  was 
dearer  to  the  heart  of  the  people  than  the  log  cabin,  and  no 
insult  more  galling  could  possibly  have  been  uttered.  That 
humble  abode,  with  its  puncheon  floor,  its  mud-smeared 
sides,  its  latch-string,  its  window,  where  well-greased  pa 
per  did  duty  for  glass,  had  ever  been,  and  was  still,  the 
symbol  of  American  hardihood,  and  instantly  became  the 
true  Whig  watchword.  On  vacant  lots  in  every  city  and 
town,  on  ten  thousand  village  greens,  the  cabin,  with  a 
coon's  skin  on  the  wall,  with  the  latch-string  hanging  out  in 
token  of  welcome,  and  with  a  barrel  of  hard  cider  close  be 
side  the  door,  became  the  Whig  headquarters.  Mounted 
on  wheels  and  occupied  by  speakers,  it  was  dragged  from 
village  to  village.  Log-cabin  raisings,  log-cabin  medals, 
log-cabin  badges,  magazines,  almanacs,  song-books,  pic 
tures,  were  everywhere  to  be  seen ;  and  into  this  wild  cam 
paign  of  song  and  laughter  Webster  entered  with  unwonted 
zeal.  Though  nobody  wanted  him  to  be  President,  the 
whole  country  seemed  possessed  to  hear  him  speak.  Count 
less  Tippecanoe  clubs  elected  him  a  member;  innumerable 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     151 

"  raisings "  claimed  his  presence.  New  Hampshire  ap 
pealed  to  him  as  the  State  where  he  was  born.  The  West 
clamored  for  him  as  the  stanch  friend  of  her  interests.  A 
score  of  towns  wanted  him  as  the  orator  for  the  Fourth  of 
July.  The  candidate  himself  was  not  so  eagerly  sought. 

The  election  over  and  won,  Harrison  tendered  the  De 
partment  of  State  to  Clay,  and,  when  he  refused,  asked 
Webster  to  choose  between  the  State  Department  and  the 
Treasury.  To  this  Webster  replied :  "  The  question  of  ac 
cepting  a  seat  in  your  cabinet,  should  it  be  tendered  me, 
has  naturally  been  the  subject  of  my  reflections  and  of 
consultations  with  friends.  The  result  of  these  reflections 
and  consultations  has  been  that  I  should  accept  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State,  should  it  be  offered  to  me  under  cir 
cumstances  such  as  now  exist." 

To  this  the  President-elect  answered :  "  I  entirely  ap 
prove  of  your  choice  of  the  two  tendered  you  " ;  and  on 
March  4,  Webster,  having  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate, 
became  Secretary  of  State. 

Early  in  May  the  National  Intelligencer  announced  that 
Daniel  Webster  had  resigned  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State.  For  months  past  the  newspapers  had  been  assert 
ing  and  then  denying  that  he  would  surely  leave  the  cab 
inet ;  but  now7,  to  the  joy^  of  the  Locofocos  and  the  Dem 
ocrats,  the  report  was  true. 

Webster  was  now,  for  the  first  time  in  fifteen  years,  a 
private  citizen.  That  he  should  ever  again  return  to  pub 
lic  life  seemed  far  from  likely.  He  had  passed  his  six 
tieth  birthday,  his  private  affairs  were  in  disorder,  and  he 
was  free  to  enjoy  the  delights  of  Marshfield,  which  was  to 
him  the  dearest  spot  on  earth. 

To  Webster's  plea  that  it  was  not  important  to  the  conn- 


152  A  New  Nation 

try  that  he  should  return  to  public  life  the  Whigs  of  Massa 
chusetts  would  not  listen,  and  on  March  4,  1845,  ne  once 
more  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  as  the  successor  of  Rufus 
Choate,  who  was  a  native  of  Essex,  Massachusetts,  and  a 
student  at  Dartmouth  College  when  Webster  delivered  his 
great  speech  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case.  We  are  told 
that  Mr.  Choate  was  so  powerfully  affected  by  the  argu 
ment  that  he  determined  to  study  law,  a  profession  in 
which,  in  time,  he  won  a  reputation  as  an  advocate  second 
to  none. 

The  influence  of  Webster  over  Choate,  thus  early  ac 
quired,  was  never  lost;  and  in  their  later  political  careers 
the  two  men  were  closely  allied.  When  Webster  left  the 
Senate  in  1841,  Choate  became  his  successor;  when  Choate 
resigned  in  1844,  Webster  in  turn  succeeded  him;  and  in 
1852  it  was  Choate  who  urged  the  nomination  of  Webster 
for  the  Presidency  before  the  Whig  National  Convention 
at  Baltimore. 

The  annexation  of  Texas  brought  war  with  Mexico ;  the 
victories  of  Taylor  and  Scott,  Kearny  and  Stockton, 
brought  a  chance  to  secure  more  territory;  fear  that  the 
new  acquisition  might  be  made  slave  soil  called  forth  the 
Wilmot  Proviso;  and  the  great  struggle  for  the  rights  of 
man  was  on  once  more. 

After  the  defeat  of  Clay  in  1844,  it  did  seem  as  if  Web 
ster's  hour  had  really  come,  and  that  he  was  the  only 
available  leader  the  Whig  party  could  offer  for  the  Pres 
idency  in  1848.  Clay,  it  is  true,  was  never  more  idolized; 
but  his  enemies  were  many  and  active,  his  views  on  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  were  opposed  to  the  growing  convic 
tions  of  Northern  Whigs,  while  even  his  warmest  friends 
had  grown  very  tired  of  following  him  always  to  defeat. 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     153 

A  new  man  was  wanted;  might  not  Webster  be  that  man? 
His  belief  that  slavery  was  a  State  institution  and  could  not 
be  meddled  with  by  Congress  made  him  acceptable  to 
Southern  Whigs.  His  services,  his  abilities,  his  devotion 
to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  were  the  admiration  of 
Northern  Whigs.  His  opposition  to  expansion,  to  the  ac 
quisition  of  more  slave  soil,  might  well  bring  to  his  sup 
port  thousands  of  old-line  Whigs  who  had  been  driven  by 
the  conduct  of  Clay  into  the  ranks  of  the  Liberty  party. 
But  the  prospect,  fair  as  it  was,  proved  a  delusion.  Web 
ster  did  not  possess  one  of  the  attributes  of  a  popular 
leader.  The  very  greatness  of  his  abilities  raised  him  far 
above  the  mass  of  men,  and  put  him  out  of  touch  with 
them.  He  inspired  awe,  but  not  affection.  No  mortal 
man  ever  thought  of  coupling  his  name  with  any  epithet  of 
popular  endearment.  Jackson  was  "  Old  Hickory," 
"  Old  Roman  " ;  Harrison  was  "  Old  Tip  " ;  Clay  was 
"  Harry  of  the  West,"  "  the  Mill-boy  of  the  Slashes  " ;  and 
Taylor  "  Old  Rough-and-Ready  " :  but  the  senator  from 
Massachusetts  was  "  the  Hon.  Daniel  \Vebster  "  to  his  dy 
ing  day.  Even  the  cartoonist  could  find  no  other  name  for 
him  than  "  Black  Dan."  It  was  to  "  Rough-and-Ready," 
therefore,  and  not  to  Daniel  Webster,  that  the  Whig 
masses  turned  in  1848,  when  they  were  done  with  Clay. 

In  the  Senate  were  now  brought  together,  for  the  last 
time,  Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Clay,  leaders  of  the  old  par 
ties,  and  Jefferson  Davis  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  soon  to 
head  the  wings  of  a  hopelessly  divided  democracy.  There, 
too,  were  Salmon  P.  Chase  and  William  H.  Seward, 
destined  to  become  chiefs  of  a  party  yet  unformed;  Hanni 
bal  Hamlin,  the  first  Vice-President  under  Lincoln ;  Sam 
uel  Houston,  who  led  the  Texans  on  the  field  of  San  Ja- 


154  A  New  Nation 

cinto,  and  twice  served  as  president  of  that  republic;  and 
Thomas  Hart  Benton,  now  about  to  close  thirty  years  of 
continuous  service  in  the  Senate. 

To  this  distinguished  body  Clay  returned  fully  deter 
mined  to  take  little  part  in  its  proceedings.  He  would 
support  Whig  measures,  but  would  neither  aid  nor  oppose 
the  administration.  He  would  be  a  calm  looker-on,  rarely 
speaking,  and  even  then  merely  for  the  purpose  of  pouring 
oil  on  the  troubled  waters.  But  he  had  not  been  many 
days  in  Washington  before  he  was  convinced  that  the  talk 
of  disunion  was  serious,  that  the  Union  wras  really  in  dan 
ger,  that  old  associates  were  turning  to  him,  and  that  he 
must  again  take  his  place  as  leader.  During  three  week? 
the  House  of  Representatives  wrangled  and  disputed  over 
the  choice  of  a  Speaker,  and  this  time  was  used  by  Clay  tc 
prepare  a  plan  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  compromise.  B\ 
the  middle  of  January,  1850,  his  work  was  ready,  and  one 
cold  evening  he  called  on  Webster,  and  went  over  the 
scheme,  and  asked  for  aid.  This  was  conditionally  prom 
ised,  and  a  week  later  Clay  unfolded  his  plan  in  a  set  of 
resolutions,  and  at  the  end  of  another  week  explained  his 
purpose  in  a  great  speech  delivered  before  a  deeply  inter 
ested  audience.  A  rumor  that  he  would  speak  on  a  cer 
tain  day  brought  men  and  women  from  cities  as  far  away 
as  New  York  to  swell  the  crowd  that  filled  the  Senate 
Chamber,  choked  every  entrance,  and  stood  in  denre 
masses  in  the  halls  and  passages.  Fatigue  and  anxiety 
were  telling  on  him.  He  could  with  difficulty  climb  the 
long  flight  of  steps  and  make  his  way  to  his  place  on  the 
floor.  But  the  eager  faces  of  the  throng,  the  seriousness 
of  the  plea  he  was  about  to  make,  and  the  shouts  of  ap 
plause  that  rose  from  floor  and  gallery  when  he  stood  up 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     155 


to  speak,  and  were  taken  up  with  yet  greater  vigor  by  the 
crowd  without,  gave  him  new  strength.  So  wild  was  the 
cheering  of  those  beyond  the  chamber  doors,  and  so  long 
did  it  continue,  that  he  could  not  be  heard  in  the  room,  and 


Exterior    and    interior    of    Webster  t> 
law  office  at  Marshfield,  Mass. 


the  president  was  forced  to  ordei 
the     hallways     to     be     cleared. 
Again    Clay    spoke    during    two 
days,  and  on  the  second  showed  such  signs 
of  physical  distress  that  senators  repeatedly  in 
terrupted  him  with  offers  to  adjourn.     But  he  would  not 
yield,  and  went  on  till  he  had  finished. 

Clay  having  spoken,  it  was  certain  that  Calhoun  would 
follow,  and  letter  after  letter  now  came  to  Webster  im 
ploring  him  to  raise  his  voice  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  and  speak  as  he  had  never  done  before. 

Appeals  of  this  sort  were  quite  unnecessary,   for  Web- 


156  A  New  Nation 

ster  was  cautiously  and  deliberately  deciding  what  was  the 
wisest  course  to  take.  In  a  letter  written  as  late  as  the 
middle  of  February  he  said :  "  I  do  not  partake  in  any  de 
gree  in  those  apprehensions  which  you  say  some  of  our 
friends  entertain  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  or  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Government.  There  is  no  danger,  be 
assured,  and  so  assure  our  friends.  I  have,  thus  far,  upon 
a  good  deal  of  reflection,  thought  it  advisable  for  me  to 
hold  my  peace.  If  a  moment  should  come  when  it  will 
be  advisable  that  any  temperate,  national,  and  practical 
speech  which  I  can  make  would  be  useful,  I  shall  do  the 
best  I  can.  Let  the  North  keep  cool."  Another  week's 
reflection  convinced  him  that  a  national  speech  must  be 
made,  and  on  the  22cl  of  February  he  wrote  the  same 
friend :  "  As  time  goes  on  I  will  keep  you  advised  by  tele 
graph,  as  well  as  I  can,  on  what  day  I  shall  speak.  As  to 
what  I  shall  say  you  can  guess  nearly  as  well  as  I  can.  I 
mean  to  make  a  Union  speech,  and  discharge  a  clear  con 
science."  His  biographer  assures  us  "  there  was  but  little 
preparation  for  it,"  and  that  "  all  that  remains  of  such 
preparation  is  on  two  small  scraps  of  paper." 

On  the  4th  of  March,  while  Webster  was  still  at  work- 
on  his  speech,  Calhoun,  then  fast  sinking  into  his  grave, 
attended  the  Senate.  He  was  far  too  feeble  to  bear  the 
fatigue  of  speaking,  so  his  argument  was  read,  in  the  midst 
of  profound  silence,  by  Senator  Mason  of  Virginia.  The 
second  of  I  he  great  triumvirate  having  now  been  heard,  it 
soon  became  noised  abroad  that  Webster  would  reply  on 
March  7,  and  on  that  day,  accordingly,  the  floors,  galleries, 
and  ante-chambers  of  the  Senate  were  so  densely  packed 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  members  reached  their 
seats.  Mr.  Walker  of  Wisconsin  had  the  floor  to  finish  a 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     157 

speech  begun  the  day  before;  but  when  he  rose  and  had 
looked  about  him,  he  said :  "  Mr.  President,  this  vast  audi 
ence  has  not  come  together  to  hear  me,  and  there  is  but 
one  man,  in  my  opinion,  who  can  assemble  such  an  audi 
ence.  They  expect  to  hear  him,  and  I  feel  it  my  duty, 
therefore,  as  it  is  my  pleasure,  to  give  the  floor  to  the  sen 
ator  from  Massachusetts." 

Webster  then  rose,  and  after  thanking  the  senator  from 
Wisconsin,  and  Mr.  Seward,  the  senator  from  New  York, 
for  their  courtesy  in  yielding  the  floor,  began  that  speech 
which  he  named  "  The  Constitution  and  the  Union,"  but 
which  his  countrymen  have  ever  since  called  by  the  day  of 
the  month  on  which  it  was  delivered. 

Addresses  of  approbation  now  came  to  him  from  citizens 
of  Boston,  of  Newburyport,  and  of  Medford,  from  the  in 
habitants  of  towns  on  the  Kennebec  River  in  Maine,  and 
from  innumerable  places  all  over  the  South,  the  West,  and 
the  Middle  States,  coupled  with  calls  for  printed  copies  of 
the  speech. 

By  the  end  of  March  "  one  hundred  and  twenty  thou 
sand  have  gone  off,"  and  as  the  demand  showed  no  decline, 
"  I  suppose  that  by  the  first  day  of  May  two  hundred  thou 
sand  will  have  been  distributed  from  Washington." 

No  speech  ever  delivered  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  produced  such  an  effect  on  the  country.  Compro 
misers,  conservative  men,  business  men  with  Southern 
connections,  those  willing  to  see  the  Union  saved  by  any 
means,  rallied  to  his  support,  and  loaded  him  with  unstinted 
praise.  But  the  antislavery  men,  the  abolitionists,  the 
Free-soilers,  and  many  Northern  Whigs  attacked  him  bit 
terly.  "  Every  drop  of  blood  in  that  man's  veins  has  eyes 
that  look  downward,"  said  Emerson,  after  reading  the 


158  A  New  Nation 

speech.  ''  Webster,"  said  Sumner,  "  has  placed  himself  in 
the  dark  list  of  apostates/'  In  the  opinion  of  hosts  of  his 
fellow-countrymen,  he  was  indeed  an  apostate,  lie  had 
changed  his  creed ;  he  had  broken  from  his  past ;  he  had 
deserted  the  cause  of  human  liberty;,  he  had  fallen  from 
grace.  When  Whittier  named  him  Ichabod,  and  mourned 
for  him  in  verse  as  one  dead,  he  did  but  express  the  feeling 
of  half  New  England: 

Let  not  the  land  once  proud  of  him 

Insult  him  now, 
Nor  brand  with  deeper  shame  his  dim, 

Dishonored   brow. 

But  let  its  humbled  sons,  instead, 

From  sea  to  lake, 
A  long  lament,  as  for  the  dead, 

In  sadness  make. 


Then,   pay  the  reverence  of  the  old  days 

To  his  dead  fame  ; 
Walk  backward,  with  averted  gaze, 

And  hide  the  shame  ! 

The  purpose  of  Webster  was  not  to  put  slavery  in  nor 
shut  it  out  of  the  new  Territories,  nor  make  every  man 
in  the  North  a  slave-catcher,  nor  bid  for  Southern  support 
in  the  coming  election.  He  sought  a  final  and  lasting  set 
tlement  of  a  question  which  threatened  the  permanence  of 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  Clay's  "  comprehen 
sive  scheme  of  adjustment,"  he  believed,  would  effect  this 
settlement. 

It  was  long  the  popular  belief  that  disappointed   ambi- 


The  Defender  of  the  Constitution     159 

tion,  chagrin  over  the  loss  of  the  Presidential  nomination, 
was  the  cause  of  Webster's  death;  but  that  such  was  the 
case  may  well  be  doubted.  He  was  now  an  old  man,  far 
on  in  his  seventy-first  year.  His  health  had  long  been 
failing;  his  strong  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  compromise 
measures  had  impaired  it  still  further;  and  his  end  was  in 
evitably  near.  That  his  great  disappointment  hastened  the 
end  is  quite  likely,  for  from  the  June  day  when  the  Balti 
more  convention  adjourned  he  broke  rapidly,  and  in  the 
early  morning  of  October  24,  1852,  he  died  at  Marshfield. 
Clay  had  preceded  him  by  four  months. 

The  great  triumvirate  had  now  passed  into  history.  Of 
these  three  men,  Calhoun  taught  the  most  pernicious  doc 
trines  ;  Clay  was  the  most  popular  leader ;  Webster  created 
the  most  enduring  work.  What  John  Marshall  did  on  the 
Supreme  Bench,  Wrebster  did  in  the  forum.  The  decisions 
of  the  great  judge  were  not  read  by  the  people.  The 
speeches  of  Webster  were  everywhere  read  by  the  people, 
influenced  them  strongly,  and  inspired  that  great  leader 
of  the  plain  people,  Abraham  Lincoln.  To  Marshall,  Web 
ster,  and  Lincoln,  more  than  to  any  other  men,  is  due  the 
belief  now  held  by  the  great  mass  of  our  countrymen,  not 
that  the  United  States  are  a  league,  but  that  the  United 
States  is  a  nation. 


OLD  NEW  YORK  AND  ITS  BUILDINGS 


RICHARD  GRANT  WHITE 

What  were  the  houses  and  the  streets 
of  New  York  like  in  1830-1840? 
There  are  old  prints  enough  to  help  out 
the  recollection  of  a  boy  observer,  who 
finds  that  after  many  years  he  can 
safely  trust  his  observation  and  his 
memory. 

Many  circumstances  united  to  make 
that  part  of  the  town  about  the  begin 
ning  of  Broadway  the  chosen  residence 
of  persons  of  fortune  and  social  distinc 
tion.  Three  of  these  were  of  them 
selves  all-sufficient :  it  was  the  oldest 
quarter;  from  the  beginning  it  had  been  the  place  of  res 
idence  of  persons  in  authority;  it  was  near  the  Battery, 
which  very  early  in  the  history  of  New  York  became  a  de 
lightful  promenade.  Considering  the  commercial  character 
of  the  place,  its  rapid  growth,  and  the 
great  changes  it  underwent,  the  long- 
period  during  which  this  quarter  pre 
served  its  distinction  is  remarkable.  It 
was  not  until  between  1835  and  1840, 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  after 
the  neighborhood  became  "  the  court 
end  of  the  town,"  that  there  was  any 

1 60 


Wirdow  in  Wash 
ington  Hotel,  Num 
ber  i,  Broadway. 


Door    in    old     New 
York  house. 


Old  New  York  and  Its  Buildings     161 

noteworthy  modification  of  its  character.  Before  that 
time,  of  necessity,  elegant  people  began  to  live  in  other 
quarters ;  but  this  did  not  affect  the  status  of  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  Battery  aiid  the  Bowling  Green.  Park  Place, 
St.  John's  Square  (between  Hudson,  Beach,  Laight,  and 
Varick  streets),  Bleecker  street,  and  even  Washington 
Square,  had,  before  or  then,  become  centers  of  fashion; 
but  there  was  a  clinging  to  the  Battery.  Even  after  the 
uptown  movement  began,  which  was  about  this  time,  peo 
ple  who  were  already  housed  near  the  Battery,  or  who 
could  afford  to  get  houses  there,  lingered  lovingly  around 
it.  And  well  they  might  do  so;  for,  except  upon  old 
Brooklyn  Heights  (and  even  then  that  was  only  "  in 


11 


Number  7,  State  Street. 


1O2 


A  New  Nation 


Brooklyn  "),  a  place  of  city  residence 
more  delightful  or  more  conveniei  t 
could  not  be  found.  Within  five  or 
ten  minutes'  walk  of  Wall  street  an  1 
of  South  street  (where  the  great  mer 
chants —  real  merchants,  who  trade- 1 
in  ships  with  Europe  and  China  and 
the  South  —  had  their 
counting  -  houses),  it 
was  yet  entirely  re 
moved  from  business  ; 
and  its  surround 
ings  made  mere 
living  there  ;. 
pleasure.  State; 
street,  which  is 
the  eastern  boun 
dary  of  the  Bat 
tery,  was  unsur 
passed,  if  it  were 
ever  equaled,  as 
a  place  of  town 
residence;  for 
living  there  was 
living  on  a  park  with  a  grand  water  view.  The  prospect 
from  the  windows  and  balconies  of  the  old  State  street 
houses  across  the  green-sward  and  through  the  elms  of  the 
Battery  included  the  bay,  with  its  islands  and  the  shores  of 
New  Jersey.  In  summer,  the  western  breezes  blew  upon 
these  windows  straight  from  the  water.  The  sight  here  on 
spring  and  summer  and  autumn  evenings,  when  splendid 
sunsets  —  common  then,  but  rare  now,  because  of  changes  in 


St.  John's,  New  York. 


Old  New  York  and  Its  Buildings     163 


the  surrounding  country,  which  have  affected  the  formation 
and  the  disposition  of  the  clouds—  made  the  firmament 
and  the  water  blaze  with  gold  and  color,  seemed  sometimes 
in  their  gorgeousness  almost  to  surpass  imagination.  It 
was  matter  of  course  that  such  a  place  should  be  chosen  as 
the  site  of  the  homes  of  wealthy  people.  Of  these  houses, 
not  a  few  are  still  standing.  But  how  changed  ! 

Close  by  the  City  Hall  stands  a  building  of  architectural 
merit, —  St.  Paul's,  one  of  the  finest  Wren  churches  now 
existing,  if  not  the 
very  finest.  In  all  my 
walks  about  London 
and  through  other  cit 
ies  in  England,  I  saw 
not  one  at  all  equal  to 
it.  The  spire  is  re 
markable  for  its  light 
ness,  its  fine  gradation, 
and  its  happy  combina 
tion  of  elements  which 
are  in  themselves  so 
little  suited  to  spire 
treatment  that  the  eye 
protests  against  them, 
even  while  it  admires 
the  triumph  of  the  con 
structor  over  his  reluc 
tant  materials.  The 
spire  of  St.  John's 
Church,  which  stands 
en  the  eastern  side  of 
the  square  is  little  in-  Doorway  in  Washington  Square. 


i64 


A  New  Nation 


ferior  to  it ;  but  St.  Paul's  springs  more  lightly  from  its 
tower,  and  rises  to  its  vanishing  point  with  a  gradual  grace 
which  St.  John's  does  not  attain.  The  Broadway  end  of  St. 
Paul's  is  hardly  less  admirable.  Its  pediment  and  loft/ 
Ionic  columns  are  beautifully  proportioned,  and  are  worthy 
of  far  more  attention  than  they  receive,  except  from  well- 
educated  architects,  who  show  little  reserve  in  their  admira 
tion  of  this  building  and  of  its  neighbor,  the  old  City  Hall. 
It  is  true  also  that  in  construction  these  churches,  and  other 
buildings  in  this  country  of  that  period,  are  much  superior 
to  those  in  England  of  the  same  date.  This  I  say  upon  the 
br  advice  of  competent 

professional  men;  for 
I  pretend  to  approach 
architecture  only  as  a 
dilettante  and  on  its 
esthetic  side. 

The  interior  of  the 
churches,  of  which  St. 
Paul's  and  St.  John's 
are  the  best  existing 
types,  were  not  with 
out  a  certain  kind  and 
degree  of  beauty.  They 
were,  indeed,  not  truly 
ecclesiastical  in  spirit 
They  lacked  entirely  the 
sublimity  and  the  mys 
tery  which  the  archi 
tecture  strangely  called 
Gothic  expresses  with 

Doorway  of  a  house  in  Oliver  Street.        sllch      natural      facility. 


Old  New  York  and  Its  Buildings     165 

For  them  no  soaring  nave  and  dimly  lighted  clear-story. 
But  they  were  better  than  most  of  the  little  sham  Gothic 
tabernacles  which  succeeded  them.  They  were  genuine; 
good  of  their  kind ;  well  suited  to  their  purpose.  In  them  re- 


Old  mantel,  New  York  house. 

spectability  and  decorum  were  so  happily  expressed  that  they 
were  raised  with  an  embodied  grace.  If  people  must  as 
semble  in  large  bodies  to  worship  in  pews,  and  take  part  in 
a  ceremonial  of  which  the  most  important  part  is  the 
listening  to  a  sermon,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  could  be 
more  conveniently,  comfortably,  and  appropriately  done 
than  in  one  of  these  old  Wren  parish  churches. 


THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 
BY  HELEN  NICOLAY 

Abraham  Lincoln's  forefathers  were  pioneers  —  men  who 
left  their  homes  to  open  up  the  wilderness  and  make  the 
\vay  plain  for  others  to  follow  them.  For  one  hundred  and 
seventy  years,  ever  since  the  first  American  Lincoln  came 
from  England  to  Massachusetts  in  1638,  they  had  been 
moving  slowly  westward  as  new7  settlements  were  made  in 
the  forest.  They  faced  solitude,  privation,  and  all  the 
dangers  and  hardships  that  beset  men  who  take  up  their 
homes  where  only  beasts  and  wild  men  have  had  home? 
before;  but  they  continued  to  press  steadily  forward, 
though  they  lost  fortune  and  sometimes  even  life  itself  in 
their  westward  progress.  Back  in  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey  some  of  the  Lincolns  had  been  men  of  wealth  and 
influence.  In  Kentucky,  where  the  future  President  was 
born  on  February  12,  1809,  his  parents  lived  in  deep  pov 
erty.  Their  home  was  a  small  log  cabin  of  the  rudest  kind, 
and  nothing  seemed  more  unlikely  than  that  their  child, 
coming  into  the  world  in  such  humble  surroundings,  was 
destined  to  be  the  greatest  man  of  his  time.  True  to  his 
race,  he  also  was  to  be  a  pioneer  —  not  indeed,  like  his 
ancestors,  a  leader  into  new  \voods  and  unexplored  fields, 
but  a  pioneer  of  a  nobler  and  grander  sort,  directing  the 
thoughts  of  men  ever  toward  the  right,  and  leading  the 
American  people,  through  difficulties  and  dangers  and  a 
mighty  war,  to  peace  and  freedom. 

166 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  167 

The  story  of  this  wonderful  man  begins  and  ends  with  a 
tragedy,  for  his  grandfather,  also  named  Abraham,  was 
killed  by  a  shot  from  an  Indian's  rifle  while  peaceably  at 
work  with  his  three  sons  on  the  edge  of  their  frontier  clear 
ing.  Eighty-one  years  later  the  President  himself  met 
death  by  an  assassin's  bullet.  The  murderer  of  one  was 
a  savage  of  the  forest ;  the  murderer  of  the  other  that  far 
more  cruel  thing,  a  savage  of  civilization. 

When  the  Indian's  shot  laid  the  pioneer  farmer  low,  his 
second  son,  Josiah,  ran  to  a  neighboring  fort  for  help,  and 
Mordecai,  the  eldest,  hurried  to  the  cabin  for  his  rifle. 
Thomas,  a  child  of  six  years,  was  left  alone  beside  the  dead 
body  of  his  father;  and  as  Mordecai  snatched  the  gun  from 
its  resting-place  over  the  door  of  the  cabin,  he  saw,  to  his 
horror,  an  Indian,  in  his  war-paint,  just  stooping  to  seize 
the  child.  Taking  quick  aim  at  a  medal  on  the  breast  of 
the  savage,  he  fired,  and  the  Indian  fell  dead.  The  little 
boy,  thus  released,  ran  to  the  house,  where  Mordecai,  firing 
through  the  loopholes,  kept  the  Indians  at  bay  until  help  ar 
rived  from  the  fort. 

It  was  this  child  Thomas  who  grew7  up  to  be  the  father 
of  President  Abraham  Lincoln.  After  the  murder  of  his 
father  the  fortunes  of  the  little  family  grew'  rapidly  worse, 
and  doubtless  because  of  poverty,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the 
marriage  of  his  older  brothers  and  sisters,  their  home  was 
broken  up,  and  Thomas  found  himself  long  before  he  \vas 
grown,  a  wandering  laboring  boy.  He  lived  for  a  time 
with  an  uncle  as  his  hired  servant,  and  later  he  learned  the 
trade  of  carpenter.  He  grew  to  manhood  entirely  without 
education,  and  when  he  was  twenty-eight  years  old  could 
neither  read  nor  write.  At  that  time  he  married  Nancy 
Hanks,  a  good-looking  young  woman  of  twenty-three,  as 


i68 


A  New  Nation 


poor  as  himself,  but  so  much  better  off  as  to  learning  that 
she  was  able  to  teach  her  husband  to  sign  his  own  name. 
Neither  of  them  had  any  money,  but  living  cost  little  on  the 
frontier  in  those  days,  and  they  felt  that  his  trade  would 
suffice  to  earn  all  that  they  should  need.  Thomas  took  his 
bride  to  a  tiny  house  in  Elizabethtown,  Kentucky,  where 
they  lived  for  about  a  year,  and  where  a  daughter  was  bora 
to  them. 

Then  they  moved  to  a  small  farm  thirteen  miles  frori 
Elizabethtown,  which  they  bought  on  credit,  the  country 
being  yet  so  new  that  there  were  places  to  be  had  for  mere 
promises  to  pay.  Farms  obtained  on  such  terms  were 
usually  of  very  poor  quality,  and  this  one  of  Thomas  Lh  - 
coln's  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  A  cabin  ready  to  be 
occupied  stood  on  it,  however;  and  not  far  away,  hidden  ia 
a  pretty  clump  of  trees  and  bushes,  was  a  fine  spring  of 
water,  because  of  which  the  place  was  known  as  Rock 


View  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  farm, 
where  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
born. 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  169 

Spring  Farm.  In  the  cabin  on  this  farm  the  future  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  was  born  on  February  12,  1809, 
and  here  the  first  four  years  of  his  life  were  spent.  Then 
the  Lincolns  moved  to  a  much  bigger  and  better  farm  on 
Knob  Creek,  six  miles  from  Hodgensville,  which  Thomas 
Lincoln  bought,  again  on  credit,  selling  the  larger  part  of  it 
soon  afterward  to  another  purchaser.  Here  they  remained 
until  Abraham  was  seven  years  old. 

About  this  early  part  of  his  childhood  almost  nothing  is 
known.  He  never  talked  of  these  days,  even  to  his  most 
intimate  friends.  To  the  pioneer  child  a  farm  offered  much 
that  a  town  lot  could  not  give  him  —  space ;  woods  to  roam 
in;  Knob  Creek  with  its  running  water  and  its  deep,  quiet 
pool  for  a  playfellow ;  berries  to  be  hunted  for  in  summer 
and  nuts  in  autumn ;  while  all  the  year  round  birds  and 
small  animals  pattered  across  his  path  to  people  the  solitude 
in  place  of  human  companions.  The  boy  had  few  com 
rades.  He  wandered  about  playing  his  lonesome  little 
games,  and  when  these  were  finished  returned  to  the  small 
and  cheerless  cabin.  Once,  when  asked  what  he  remembered 
about  the  War  of  1812  with  Great  Britain,  he  replied: 
"  Only  this :  I  had  been  fishing  one  day  and  had  caught  a 
little  fish,  which  I  was  taking  home.  I  met  a  soldier  in  the 
road,  and  having  always  been  told  at  home  that  we  must  be 
good  to  soldiers,  I  gave  him  my  fish."  It  is  only  a  glimpse 
into  his  life,  but  it  shows  the  solitary,  generous  child  and  the 
patriotic  household. 

It  was  while  living  on  this  farm  that  Abraham  and  his 
sister  Sarah  first  began  going  to  A-B-C  schools.  Their 
earliest  teacher  was  Zachariah  Riney,  who  taught  near  the 
Lincoln  cabin ;  the  next  was  Caleb  Hazel,  four  miles  away. 

In   spite   of   the   tragedy   that   darkened   his   childhood, 


170  A  New  Nation 

Thomas  Lincoln  seems  to  have  been  a  cheery,  indolent,  good- 
natured  man.  By  means  of  a  little  farming  and  occasional 
jobs  at  his  trade,  he  managed  to  supply  his  family  with  the 
absolutely  necessary  food  and  shelter,  but  he  never  got  on  ri 
the  world.  He  found  it  much  easier  to  gossip  with  his 
friends,  or  to  dream  about  rich  new  lands  in  the  West,  tha  i 
to  make  a  thrifty  living  in  the  place  where  he  happened  t ) 
be.  The  blood  of  the  pioneer  was  in  his  veins,  too  —  the 
desire  to  move  westward ;  and  hearing  glowing  accounts  o  f 
the  new  territory  of  Indiana,  he  resolved  to  go  and  see  it  h  r 
himself.  His  skill  as  a  carpenter  made  this  not  only  poss,- 
ble  but  reasonably  cheap,  and  in  the  fall  of  1816  he  built 
himself  a  little  flatboat,  launched  it  half  a  mile  from  h  s 
cabin,  at  the  mouth  of  Knob  Creek  on  the  waters  of  tie 
Rolling  Ford,  and  floated  on  it  down  that  stream  to  Salt 
River,  down  Salt  River  to  the  Ohio,  and  down  the  Ohio  to 
a  landing  called  Thompson's  Ferry  on  the  Indiana  shore. 

Sixteen  miles  out  from  the  river,  near  a  small  stream 
known  as  Pigeon  Creek,  he  found  a  spot  in  the  forest  that 
suited  him;  and  as  his  boat  could  not  be  made  to  float  up 
stream,  he  sold  it,  stored  his  goods  with  an  obliging  settler, 
and  trudged  back  to  Kentucky,  all  the  way  on  foot,  to  fetch 
his  wife  and  children  —  Sarah,  who  was  now  nine  years 
old,  and  Abraham,  seven.  This  time  the  journey  to  Indiana 
was  made  with  two  horses,  used  by  the  mother  and  children 
for  riding,  and  to  carry  their  little  camping  outfit  for  the 
night.  The  distance  from  their  old  home  was,  in  a  straight 
line,  little  more  than  fifty  miles,  but  they  had  to  go  double 
that  distance  because  of  the  very  few  roads  it  was  possible 
to  follow. 

Reaching  the  Ohio  River  and  crossing  to  the  Indiana 
shore,  Thomas  Lincoln  hired  a  wagon  which  carried  his 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  171 

family  and  their  belongings  the  remaining  sixteen  miles 
through  the  forest  to  the  spot  he  had  chosen  —  a  piece  of 
heavily  wooded  land,  one  and  a  half  miles  east  of  what  has 
since  become  the  village  of  Gentryville  in  Spencer  County. 
The  lateness  of  the  autumn  made  it  possible  to  put  up 
a  shelter  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  he  built  what  was 
known  on  the  frontier  as  a  half-faced  camp  about  fourteen 
feet  square.  This  differed  from  a  cabin  in  that  it  was 
closed  on  only  three  sides,  being  quite  open  to  the  weather  on 
the  fourth.  A  fire  was  usually  made  in  front  of  the  open 
side,  and  thus  the  necessity  for  having  a  chimney  was  done 
away  with.  Thomas  Lincoln  doubtless  intended  this  only 
for  a  temporary  shelter,  and  as  such  it  would  have  done  well 
enough  in  pleasant  summer  weather ;  but  it  was  a  rude  provi 
sion  against  the  storms  and  winds  of  an  Indiana  winter. 
It  shows  his  want  of  energy  that  the  family  remained  housed 
in  this  poor  camp  for  nearly  a  whole  year;  but,  after  all,  he 
must  not  be  too  hastily  blamed.  He  was  far  from  idle.  A 
cabin  was  doubtless  begun,  and  there  was  the  very  heavy 
work  of  clearing  away  the  timber  —  cutting  down  large 
trees,  chopping  them  into  suitable  lengths,  and  rolling  them 
together  into  great  heaps  to  be  burned,  or  splitting  them  into 
rails  to  fence  the  small  field  upon  which  he  managed  to  raise 
a  patch  of  corn  and  other  things  during  the  following  sum 
mer. 

Though  only  seven  years  old,  Abraham  was  unusually 
large  and  strong  for  his  age,  and  he  helped  his  father  in  all 
this  heavy  labor  of  clearing  the  farm.  Writing  about  it  in 
after  years,  he  said :  "  An  ax  was  put  into  my  hands  at 
once,  and  from  that  till  within  my  twenty-third  year  I  was 
almost  constantly  handling  that  most  useful  instrument  — 
less,  of  course,  in  plowing  and  harvesting  seasons."  At 


172  A  New  Nation 

first  the  Lincolns  and  their  seven  or  eight  neighbors  lived 
in  the  unbroken  forest.  They  had  only  the  tools  and  house 
hold  goods  they  brought  with  them,  or  such  things  as  they 
could  fashion  \vith  their  own  hands.  There  was  no  saw 
mill  to  saw  lumber.  The  village  of  Gentryville  was  no. 
even  begun.  Breadstuff  could  be  had  only  by  sending  young- 
Abraham  seven  miles  on  horseback  wilh  a  bag  of  corn  to 
be  ground  in  a  hand  grist-mill. 

About  the  time  the  new  cabin  was  ready  relatives  am, 
friends  followed  from  Kentucky,  and  some  of  these  in  turn 
occupied  the  half-faced  camp.  During  the  autumn  a  severe 
and  mysterious  sickness  broke  out  in  their  little  settlement, 
and  a  number  of  people  died,  among  them  the  mother  o  " 
young  Abraham.  There  was  no  help  to  be  had  beyond  \vha 
the  neighbors  could  give  each  other.  The  nearest  doctor 
lived  fully  thirty  miles  away.  There  was  not  even  a  minis 
ter  to  conduct  the  funerals.  Thomas  Lincoln  made  the 
coffins  for  the  dead  out  of  green  lumber  cut  from  the  foresi 
trees  with  a  whip-saw,  and  they  were  laid  to  rest  in  a  clear 
ing  in  the  woods.  Months  afterwards,  largely  through  the 
efforts  of  the  sorrowing  boy,  a  preacher  who  chanced  to 
come  that  way  was  induced  to  hold  a  service  and  preach  a 
sermon  over  the  grave  of  Mrs.  Lincoln. 

Her  death  was  indeed  a  serious  blow  to  her  husband  and 
children.  Abraham's  sister,  Sarah,  was  only  eleven  years 
old,  and  the  tasks  and  cares  of  the  little  household  were  al 
together  too  heavy  for  her  years  and  experience.  Never 
theless  they  struggled  bravely  through  the  winter  and  follow 
ing  summer;  then  in  the  autumn  of  1819  Thomas  Lincoln 
went  back  to  Kentucky  and  married  Sarah  .Rush 
Johnston,  whom  he  had  known,  and  it  is  said 
courted,  when  she  was  onlv  Sally  Bush.  She  had 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln 


173 


The  log-cabin  in  which   Abraham   Lincoln   was 
born. 


married  about  the  time  Lincoln  married  Nancy  Hanks, 
and  her  husband  had  died,  leaving  her  with  three  children. 
She  came  of  a 
better  station  in 
life  than  Thom 
as,  and  was  a 
woman  with  an 
excellent  mind 
as  well  as  a 
warm  and  gener 
ous  heart.  The 
household  goods 
that  she  brought 
with  her  to  the 
Lincoln  home  filled  a  four-horse  wagon,  and  not  only 
were  her  own  children  well  clothed  and  cared  for,  but  she 
was  able  at  once  to  provide  little  Abraham  and  Sarah  with 
comforts  to  which  they  had  been  strangers  during  the  whole 
of  their  young  lives.  Under  her  wise  management  all  jeal 
ousy  was  avoided  between  the  two  sets  of  children;  urged 
on  by  her  stirring  example,  Thomas  Lincoln  supplied  the 
yet  unfinished  cabin  with  floor,  door,  and  windows,  and  life 
became  more  comfortable  for  all  its  inmates,  contentment  if 
not  happiness  reigning  in  the  little  home. 

The  new  stepmother  quickly  became  very  fond  of  Abra 
ham,  and  encouraged  him  in  every  way  in  her  power  to  study 
and  improve  himself.  The  chances  for  this  were  few 
enough.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  left  us  a  vivid  picture  of  the  situa 
tion.  "  It  was,"  he  once  wrote,  "  a  wild  region  with  many 
bears  and  other  wild  animals  still  in  the  woods.  There  I 
grew  up.  There  were  some  schools,  so  called,  but  no 
qualification  was  ever  required  of  a  teacher  beyond  read- 


174  ..A  New  Nation 

ing,  writing,  and  ciphering  to  the  Rule  of  Three.  If  ;i 
straggler  supposed  to  understand  Latin  happened  to  so 
journ  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was  looked  upon  as  a  wizard." 

The  school-house  was  a  low  cabin  of  round  logs,  with 
split  logs  or  "  puncheons  "  for  a  floor,  split  logs  roughly 
leveled  with  an  ax  and  set  upon  legs  for  benches,  and  holes 
cut  out  in  the  logs  and  the  space  filled  in  with  squares  of 
greased  paper  for  window-panes.  The  main  light  came  in 
through  the  open  door.  Very  often  Webster's  "  Elemental-;/ 
Spelling-book  "  was  the  only  text-book.  This  was  the  kind 
of  school  most  common  in  the  middle  west  during  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  boyhood,  though  already  in  some  places  there  were 
schools  of  a  more  pretentious  character.  Indeed,  back  in 
Kentucky,  at  the  very  time  that  Abraham,  a  child  of  six, 
was  learning  his  letters  from  Zachariah  Riney,  a  boy  onlir 
a  year  older  was  attending  a  Catholic  seminary  in  the  very 
next  county.  It  is  doubtful  if  they  ever  met,  but  the  des 
tinies  of  the  two  were  strangely  interwoven,  for  the  older 
boy  was  Jefferson  Davis,  who  became  head  of  the  Confed 
erate  government  shortly  after  Lincoln  was  elected  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

As  Abraham  had  been  only  seven  years  old  when  he  left 
Kentucky,  the  little  beginnings  he  learned  in  the  schools 
kept  by  Riney  and  Hazel  in  that  State  must  have  been  very 
slight,  probably  only  his  alphabet,  or  at  most  only  three  or 
four  pages  of  Webster's  "  Elementary  Spelling-book."  The 
multiplication-table  was  still  a  mystery  to  him,  and  he  could 
read  or  write  only  the  words  he  spelled.  His  first  two  years 
in  Indiana  seem  to  have  passed  without  schooling  of  any 
sort,  and  the  school  he  attended  shortly  after  coming  under 
the  care  of  his  stepmother  was  of  the  simplest  kind,  for  tlu 
Pigeon  Creek  settlement  numbered  only  eight  or  ten  poor 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  175 

families,  and  they  lived  deep  in  the  forest,  where,  even  if 
they  had  had  the  money  for  such  luxuries,  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  buy  books,  slates,  pens,  ink,  or  paper.  It 
is  worthy  of  note,  however,  that  in  our  Western  country, 
even  under  such  difficulties,  a  school-house  was  one  of  the 
first  buildings  to  rise  in  every  frontier  settlement.  Abra 
ham's  second  school  in  Indiana  wras  held  when  he  was  four 
teen  years  old,  and  the  third  in  his  seventeenth  year.  By 
that  time  he  had  more  books  and  better  teachers,  but  he  had 
to  walk  four  or  five  miles  to  reach  them.  We  know  that  he 
learned  to  write,  and  was  provided  with  pen,  ink,  and  a  copy 
book  —  a  very  small  supply  of  writing-paper,  for  copies  have 
been  printed  of  several  scraps  on  which  he  carefully  wrote 
down  tables  of  long  measure,  land  measure,  and  dry  measure, 
as  well  as  examples  in  multiplication  and  compound  division, 
from  his  arithmetic.  He  was  never  abk  to  go  to  school 
again  after  this  time  and  though  the  instruction  he  received 
from  his  five  teachers  —  two  in  Kentucky  and  three  in 
Indiana  —  extended  over  a  period  of  nine  years,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  it  made  up  in  all  less  than  one  twelvemonth ; 
"  that  the  aggregate  of  all  his  schooling  did  not  amount  to 
one  year."  The  fact  that  he  received  this  instruction,  as  he 
himself  said,  "  by  littles,"  was  doubtless  an  advantage.  A 
lazy  or  indifferent  boy  would  of  course  have  forgotten  what 
was  taught  him  at  one  time  before  he  had  opportunity  at  an 
other;  but  Abraham  was  neither  indifferent  nor  lazy,  and 
these  widely  separated  fragments  of  instruction  were  pre 
cious  steps  to  self-help.  He  pursued  his  studies  with  very 
unusual  purpose  and  determination  not  only  to  understand 
them  at  the  moment,  but  to  fix  them  firmly  in  his  mind.  His 
early  companions  all  agree  that  he  employed  every  spare  mo 
ment  in  keeping  on  with  some  one  of  his  studies.  His  step- 


A  New  Nation 


mother  tells  us  that  when  he  came  across  a  passage  that  struck 
him,  he  would  write  it  down  on  boards  if  he  had  no  paper, 
and  keep  it  there  until  he  did  get  paper.  Then  he  would  re 
write  it,  look  at  it,  repeat  it.  He  had  a  copy-book,  a  kind  01' 
scrap-book,  in  which  he  put  down  all  things,  and  thus  pre 
served  them.  He  spent  long  evenings  doing  sums  on  the  fire- 
shovel.  Iron  fire-shovels  were  a  rarity  among  pioneers 
Instead  they  used  a  broad,  thin  clapboard  with  one  end  nar 
rowed  to  a  handle 
arranging  with  this 
the  piles  of  coals 
upon  the  hearth, 
over  which  they  se-: 
their  "  skillet  "  and 
"  oven  "  to  do  their 
cooking.  It  was 
on  such  a  wooden 
shovel  that  Abra 
ham  worked  his 
sums  by  the  flick 
ering  firelight,  mak 
ing  his  figures  with 
a  piece  of  charcoal, 
and  when  the  shov 
el  was  all  covered, 
taking  a  drawing- 
knife  and  shaving 
it  off  clean  again. 

The    hours    that 
he  was  able  to  de- 
Leaf,   reduced    in    size,    from   Abraham    Lin-       vote     to     his     pen- 
coin's    exercise    book,     written    about    his  -,  •        i  •  , 

seventeenth  year.  manslnp,    his    read 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  177 

ing,  and  his  arithmetic  were  by  no  means  many;  for, 
save  for  the  short  time  that  he  was  actually  in  school,  he 
was,  during  all  these  years,  laboring  hard  on  his  father's 
farm,  or  hiring  his  youthful  strength  to  neighbors  who  had 
need  of  help  in  the  work  of  field  or  forest.  In  pursuit  of  his 
knowledge  he  was  on  an  up-hill  path;  yet  in  spite  of  all  ob 
stacles  he  worked  his  way  to  so  much  of  an  education  as 
placed  him  far  ahead  of  his  schoolmates  and  quickly  abreast 
of  his  various  teachers.  He  borrowed  every  book  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  list  is  a  short  one  :  "  Robinson  Crusoe," 
"  ^sop's  Fables,"  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  Weems's 
"  Life  of  Washington,"  and  a  "  History  of  the  United 
States."  When  everything  else  had  been  read,  he  resolutely 
began  on  the  "  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,"  which  Dave 
Turnham,  the  constable,  had  in  daily  use,  but  permitted  him 
to  come  to  his  house  and  read. 

Though  so  fond  of  his  books,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
he  cared  only  for  work  and  serious  study.  He  was  a  social, 
sunny-tempered  lad,  as  fond  of  jokes  and  fun  as  he  was 
kindly  and  industrious.  His  stepmother  said  to  him :  "  I 
can  say,  what  scarcely  one  mother  in  a  thousand  can  say, 
Abe  never  gave  me  a  cross  word  or  look,  and  never  re 
fused  to  do  anything  I  asked  him.  I  must  say  that  Abe  was 
the  best  boy  I  ever  saw  or  expect  to  see." 

He  and  John  Johnston,  his  stepmother's  son,  and  John 
Hanks,  a  relative  of  his  own  mother's,  worked  barefoot  to 
gether  in  the  fields,  grubbing,  plowing,  hoeing,  gathering  and 
shucking  corn,  and  taking  part,  when  occasion  offered,  in  the 
practical  jokes  and  athletic  exercises  that  enlivened  the  hard 
work  of  the  pioneers.  For  both  work  and  play  Abraham 
had  one  great  advantage.  He  was  not  only  a  tall,  strong 

country  boy :  he  soon  grew  to  be  a  tall,  strong,  sinewy  man. 
12 


178  A  New  Nation 

He  early  reached  the  unusual  height  of  six  feet  four  inches, 
and  his  long  arms  gave  him  a  degree  of  power  as  an  axma  i 
that  few  were  able  to  rival.  He  therefore  usually  led  his 
fellows  in  efforts  of  muscle  as  well  as  of  mind.  That  he 
could  outrun,  outlift,  outwrestle  his  boyish  companions,  that 
he  could  chop  faster,  split  more  rails  in  a  day,  carry  a  heavier 
log  at  a  "raising,"  or  excel  the  neighborhood  champion  in 
any  feat  of  frontier  athletics,  was  doubtless  a  matter  of  pride 
with  him;  but  stronger  than  all  else  was  his  eager  craving  for 
knowledge.  He  felt  instinctively  that  the  power  of  using  the 
mind  rather  than  the  muscles  was  the  key  to  success.  He 
wished  not  only  to  wrestle  with  the  best  of  them,  but  to  be 
able  to  talk  like  the  preacher,  spell  and  cipher  like  the  school 
master,  argue  like  the  lawyer,  and  write  like  the  editor. 

Yet  he  was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  a  prig.  He  was 
helpful,  sympathetic,  cheerful.  In  all  the  neighborhood 
gatherings,  when  settlers  of  various  ages  came  together  at 
corn-huskings  or  house-raisings,  or  when  mere  chance 
brought  half  a  dozen  of  them  at  the  same  time  to  the  post- 
office  or  the  country  store,  he  was  able,  according  to  his 
years,  to  add  his  full  share  to  the  gaiety  of  the  company. 
By  reason  of  his  reading  and  his  excellent  memory,  he  soon 
became  the  best  story-teller  among  his  companions ;  and 
even  the  slight  training  gained  from  his  studies  greatly 
broadened  and  strengthened  the  strong  reasoning  faculty 
with  which  he  had  been  gifted  by  nature.  His  wit  might  be 
mischievous,  but  it  was  never  malicious,  and  his  nonsense 
was  never  intended  to  wound  or  to  hurt  the  feelings.  It  is 
told  of  him  that  he  added  to  his  fund  of  jokes  and  stories 
humorous  imitations  of  the  sermons  of  eccentric  preachers. 

Very  likely  too  much  is  made  of  all  these  boyish  pranks. 
He  grew  up  very  like  his  fellows.  In  only  one  particular 


The  Early  Life  of  Lincoln  179 

did  he  differ  greatly  from  the  frontier  boys  around  him.  He 
never  took  any  pleasure  in  hunting.  Almost  every  youth  of 
the  backwoods  early  became  an  excellent  shot  and  confirmed 
sportsman.  The  woods  still  swarmed  with  game,  and  every 
cabin  depended  largely  upon  this  for  its  supply  of  food.  But 
to  his  strength  was  added  a  gentleness  which  made  him 
shrink  from  killing  or  inflicting  pain,  and  the  time  the  other 
boys  gave  to  lying  in  ambush,  he  preferred  to  spend  in  read 
ing  or  in  efforts  at  improving  his  mind. 

Only  twrice  during  his  life  in  Indiana  was  the  routine  of 
his  employment  changed.  When  he  was  about  sixteen  years 
old  he  worked  for  a  time  for  a  man  who  lived  at  the  mouth 
of  Anderson's  Creek,  and  here  part  of  his  duty  was  to 
manage  a  ferry-boat  which  carried  passengers  across  the 
Ohio  River.  It  was  very  likely  this  experience  which,  three 
7ears  later,  brought  him  another.  Mr.  Gentry,  the  chief  man 
of  the  village  of  Gentry ville,  that  had  grown  up  a  mile  or 
so  from  his  father's  cabin,  loaded  a  flatboat  on  the  Ohio 
River  with  the  produce  his  store  had  collected, —  corn,  flour, 
pork,  bacon,  and  other  miscellaneous  provisions, —  and  put 
ting  it  in  charge  of  his  son  Allen  Gentry  and  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  sent  them  with  it  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
rivers,  to  sell  its  cargo  at  the  plantations  of  the  lower  Miss 
issippi,  where  sugar  and  cotton  were  the  principal  crops,  and 
where  other  food  supplies  were  needed  to  feed  the 
slaves.  No  better  proof  is  needed  of  the  reputation  for 
strength,  skill,  honesty,  and  intelligence  that  this  tall  country 
boy  had  already  won  for  himself,  than  that  he  was  chosen  to 
navigate  the  flatboat  a  thousand  miles  to  the  "  sugar-coast  " 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  sell  its  load,  and  bring  back  the 
money.  Allen  Gentry  was  supposed  to  be  in  command,  but 
from  the  record  of  his  after  life  we  may  be  sure  that  Abra- 


180  A  New  Nation 


ham  did  his  full  share  both  of  work  and  management.  The 
elder  Gentry  paid  Lincoln  eight  dollars  a  month  and  his 
passage  home  on  a  steamboat  for  this  service.  The  voyage 
was  made  successfully,  although  not  without  adventure;  fcr 
one  night,  after  the  boat  was  tied  up  to  the  shore,  the  boys 
were  attacked  by  seven  negroes,  who  came  aboard  intending 
to  kill  and  rob  them.  There  was  a  lively  scrimmage,  in 
which,  though  slightly  hurt,  they  managed  to  beat  off  their 
assailants,  and  then,  hastily  cutting  their  boat  adrift,  swung 
out  on  the  stream.  The  marauding  band  little  dreamed  tha 
they  were  attacking  the  man  who  in  after  years  was  to  give 
their  race  its  freedom;  and  though  the  future  was  equally 
hidden  from  Abraham,  it  is  hard  to  estimate  the  vistas  01' 
hope  and  ambition  that  this  long  journey  opened  to  him.  Ii 
was  his  first  look  into  the  wide,  wide  world. 


MY  ESCAPE  FROM  SLAVERY 
BY  FREDERICK  DOUGLASS  ' 

In  the  first  narrative  of  my  experience  in  slavery  I  have 
given  the  public  very  good  reasons  for  withholding  the  man 
ner  of  my  escape.  In  substance  those  reasons  were,  first, 
that  such  publication  at  any  time  during  the  existence  of 
slavery  might  be  used  by  the  master  against  the  slave,  and 
prevent  the  future  escape  of  any  who  used  the  same  means 
that  I  did.  The  second  reason  was,  if  possible,  more  bind 
ing  to  silence :  the  publication  of  details  would  certainly 
have  put  in  peril  the  persons  and  property  of  those  who  as 
sisted.  Murder  itself  was  not  more  certainly  punished  in 
the  State  of  Maryland  than  that  of  aiding  and  abetting  the 
escape  of  a  slave.  Many  colored  men  for  no  other  crime 
than  that  of  giving  aid  to  a  fugitive  slave,  have,  like  Charles 
T.  Torrey,  perished  in  prison.  ...  In  order  to  avoid 
fatal  scrutiny  on  the  part  of  railroad  officials,  I  arranged 
with  Isaac  Rolls,  a  Baltimore  hackman,  to  bring  my  baggage 
to  the  Philadelphia  train  just  on  the  moment  of  starting,  and 
jumped  on  the  car  myself  when  the  train  was  in  motion. 
Had  I  gone  to  the  station  and  offered  to  purchase  a  ticket,  I 
should  have  been  instantly  and  carefully  examined,  and  un 
doubtedly  arrested.  In  choosing  this  plan,  I  considered  the 
jostle  of  the  train  and  the  natural  haste  of  the  conductor,  in 

1  Afterwards  editor  of  New  National  Era  in  Washington,  D.  C. 
Presidential  elector  at  large  for  the  State  of  New  York,  Marshal  of 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  United  States  Minister  to  Hayti. 

181 


182  A  New  Nation 

a  train  crowded  with  passengers,  and  relied  upon  my  skill  and 
address  in  playing  the  sailor,  as  described  in  my  protection, 
to  do  the  rest;  for  I  had  the  papers  of  a  friend,  a  sailor,  de 
scribing  his  person  and  certifying  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
free  American  sailor.  The  instrument  had  at  its  head  the 
American  eagle,  which  gave  it  the  appearance  at  once  of  an 
authorized  document.  It  did  not  describe  my  appearance 
very  accurately.  Indeed,  it  called  for  a  man  much  darker 
than  myself,  and  a  close  examination  of  it  would  have 
caused  my  arrest  at  the  very  start.  .  . 

In  my  clothing,  I  was  rigged  out  in  sailor  style.  I  had  on  a 
red  shirt  and  a  tarpaulin  hat,  and  a  black  cravat  tied  in  sailor 
fashion  carelessly  and  loosely  about  my  neck.  My  knowl 
edge  of  ships  came  to  my  assistance  for  I  knew  a  ship  from 
stern  to  stern  and  could  talk  sailor  like  an  old  salt. 

I  was  well  on  the  way  before  the  conductor  came  into  the 
negro  car  to  collect  tickets  and  examine  the  papers  of  the 
black  passengers.  This  was  a  critical  moment  in  the  drama. 
My  whole  future  depended  upon  the  decision  of  that  con 
ductor.  Agitated  though  I  was  while  this  ceremony  was 
proceeding,  still,  externally  at  least,  I  was  perfectly  calm  and 
self-possessed.  He  went  on  with  his  duty,  examining  sev 
eral  colored  passengers  before  reaching  me.  He  was  some 
what  harsh  in  tone  and  peremptory  in  manner  until  he 
reached  me,  when,  strange  enough  and  to  my  surprise  and 
relief,  his  whole  manner  changed.  Seeing  that  I  did  not 
readily  produce  my  free  papers,  as  the  other  colored  persons 
in  the  car  had  done  he  said  to  me  in  friendly  contrast  with 
his  bearing  toward  the  others  : 

"  I  suppose  you  have  your  free  papers?  " 

To  which  I  answered  : 

"  No,  sir;  I  never  carry  my  free  papers  to  sea  with  me." 


My  Escape  From  Slavery  183 

"  But  you  have  something  to  show  that  you  are  a  freeman, 
have  n't  you?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  I  answered.  "  I  have  a  paper  with  the  Ameri 
can  eagle  upon  it,  and  that  will  carry  me  around  the  world." 
\Yith  this  I  drew  from  my  deep  sailor's  pocket  my  seaman's 
protection.  The  merest  glance  at  the  paper  satisfied  him 
and  he  took  my  fare  and  went  on  about  his  business.  This 
moment  of  time  was  one  of  the  most  anxious  I  ever  expe 
rienced.  Had  the  conductor  looked  closely  at  the  paper,  he 
could  not  have  failed  to  discover  that  it  called  for  a  very 
different  looking  person  from  myself,  and  in  that  case  it 
would  have  been  his  duty  to  arrest  me  on  the  instant  and 
send  me  back  to  Baltimore  from  the  first  station. 

When  he  left  me  with  the  assurance  that  I  was  all  right, 
though  much  relieved  I  realized  that  I  was  still  in  great 
danger ;  I  was  still  in  Maryland  and  subject  to  arrest  at  any 
moment.  I  saw  several  persons  on  the  train  who  would 
have  known  me  in  any  other  clothes,  and  I  feared  they  might 
recognize  me,  even  in  my  sailor  "  rig  "  and  report  me  to  the 
conductor,  who  would  then  subject  me  to  a  closer  examina 
tion,  which  I  knew  well  would  be  fatal  to  me. 

Though  I  was  not  a  murderer  fleeing  from  justice,  I  felt 
perhaps  quite  as  miserable  as  such  a  criminal.  The  train 
was  moving  at  a  very  high  rate  of  speed  for  that  epoch  of 
railway  travel,  but  to  my  anxious  mind  it  was  moving  far 
too  slowly.  Minutes  were  hours,  and  hours  were  days 
during  this  part  of  my  flight.  After  Maryland  I  was  to  pass 
through  Delaware,  another  slave  State,  where  slave-catchers 
generally  awaited  their  prey,  for  it  was  not  in  the  interior  of 
the  State  but  on  its  borders,  that  these  human  hounds  were 
most  vigilant  and  active.  The  border  lines  between  free 
dom  and  slavery  were  the  dangerous  ones  for  fugitives. 


184  A  New  Nation 

The  heart  of  no  fox  or  deer,  with  hungry  hounds  on  hi^ 
trail  in  full  chase,  could  have  beaten  more  anxiously  cr 
noisily  than  did  mine  from  the  time  I  left  Baltimore  till  I 
reached  Philadelphia. 

Once  across  the  Susquehanna  River,  I  encountered  a  new 
danger.  Only  a  few  days  before,  I  had  been  at  work  on  ;. 
revenue  cutter,  in  Mr.  Price's  shipyard  in  Baltimore,  under 
the  care  of  Captain  Mac  Gowan.  On  the  meeting  at  this 
point  of  the  two  trains,  the  one  going  south  stopped  on  tin- 
track  just  opposite  the  one  going  north,  and  it  so  happenec 
that  this  Captain  Mac  Gowan,  sat  at  a  window  where  he 
could  see  me  very  distinctly,  and  would  certainly  have  recog 
nized  me  had  he  looked  at  me  but  for  a  second.  Fortu 
nately,  in  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  he  did  not  see  me;  and 
the  trains  soon  passed  each  other  on  their  respective  ways. 

But  this  was  not  my  only  hairbreadth  escape.  A  Ger 
man  blacksmith  whom  I  knew  \vell  was  on  the  train  with  me. 
and  looked  at  me  very  intently,  as  if  he  thought  he  had  seen 
me  somewhere  before  in  his  travels.  I  really  believe  he 
knew  me  but  had  no  heart  to  betray  me.  At  any  rate  he  saw 
me  escaping  and  held  his  peace. 

The  last  point  of  imminent  danger,  and  the  one  I  dreaded 
most,  was  Wilmington.  Here  we  left  the  train  and  took 
the  steamboat  for  Philadelphia.  In  making  the  change  I 
apprehended  arrest,  but  no  one  disturbed  me  and  I  was  soon 
on  the  broad  and  beautiful  Delaware  speeding  away  to  the 
Quaker  City.  On  reaching  Philadelphia  in  the  afternoon  I 
asked  a  colored  man  how  I  could  get  on  to  New  York.  He 
directed  me  to  the  William  Street  depot  and  thither  I  went. 
taking  the  train  that  night.  I  reached  New  York  in  the 
morning,  having  completed  the  journey  in  less  than  twenty- 
four  hours. 


My  Escape  From  Slavery  185 

My  free  life  began  on  the  third  of  September,  1838.  On 
the  morning  of  the  fourth  of  that  month,  after  an  anxious 
and  most  perilous  but  safe  journey,  I  found  myself  in  the 
big  city  of  New  York,  a  free  man  —  one  more  added  to  the 
mighty  throng  which,  like  the  confused  waves  of  the  troubled 
sea,  surged  to  and  fro  between  the  lofty  walls  of  Broadway. 

Though  dazzled  with  the  wonders  which  met  me  on  every 
hand,  my  thoughts  could  not  tie  much  withdrawn  from  my 
strange  situation.  For  the  moment  the  dreams  of  my  youth 
and  the  hopes  of  my  manhood  were  completely  fulfilled. 
The  bands  that  had  held  me  to  "  Old  Master  "  were  broken. 
Xo  man  now  had  a  right  to  call  me  his  slave  or  assert  his 
mastery  over  me.  I  was  in  the  rough  and  tumble  of  an  out 
door  world,  to  take  my  chance  with  the  rest  of  its  busy  num 
ber.  I  have  often  been  asked  how  I  felt  when  first  I  found 
myself  on  free  soil.  There  is  scarcely  anything  in  my  expe 
rience  about  which  I  could  not  give  a  more  satisfactory  an 
swer.  A  new  world  had  opened  upon  me.  If  life  is  more 
than  breath,  and  the  "  quick  round  of  blood,"  I  lived  more 
in  that  one  day  than  in  a  year  of  my  slave  life.  It  was  a 
time  of  joyous  excitement  which  words  can  but  faintly  de 
scribe. 


THE 

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS 
DEBATES 

Fifty  Years  After 

BY 
FREDERICK  TREVOR  HILL 


THE   FIRST    DAY OTTAWA,    ILLINOIS 

On  Friday,  August  20,  1858,  work  was  virtually  suspended 
in  the  outlying  districts,  and  all  the  local  world  was  in 
holiday  mood.  Under  clouds  of  dust  and  a  burning  summer 
sun,  straggling  processions  of  people  on  foot,  on  horseback, 
in  hay  carts  and  in  canvas-covered  wagons  occupied  every 
turnpike  and  country  lane  leading  to  Ottawa.  Despite  its 
political  differences,  it  was  a  friendly,  good-natured  crowd 
that  spread  itself  over  the  bluffs  and  rolling  prairie.  Fam 
ily  groups  and  neighborhood  parties  fraternized  with  one 
another,  hospitality  was  proffered,  provisions  were  shared, 
and  the  coming  event  was  discussed  without  bitterness  or 
hard  feeling  of  any  kind.  Thus  passed  the  eve  of  the  mo 
mentous  duel. 

Saturday  dawned  clear,  and  before  the  sun  was  fairly  up, 
the  advance-guard  of  the  audience  began  to  pour  into  the  lit 
tle  town. 

On  the  court-house  green  a  rough,  undecorated,  pine- 
board  platform  had  been  erected,  but  no  seats  had  been 
provided  for  the  audience,  and  the  square  itself  was  without 
sufficient  trees  to  protect  them  from  the  sun.  Not  dis 
couraged  by  this  uninviting  prospect,  many  of  the  first  - 

186 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          187 

comers  sat  down  on  the  grass  in  front  of  the  speakers' 
stand  and  settled  themselves  for  a  long  wait  rather  than 
lose  the  advantage  of  their  early  start,  and  others 
manceuvered  their  carts  into  favorable  positions  at  the  edge 
of  the  square,  where  they  formed  a  sort  of  improvised 
gallery. 

There  was  confidence  in  every  line  of  Douglas's  clear- 
cut,  clean-shaven  face  as  he  stepped  to  the  front  of  the 
platform  and  bowed  to  the  cheering  multitude,  and  when 
his  awkward  rival  stood  beside  him,  he  had  no  reason 
to  distrust  the  effect  of  the  inevitable  comparison. 

No  time  was  lost  in  initiating  the  contest.  Neither 
speaker  required  any  introduction,  and  Douglas  began  by 
outlining  the  rules  of  the  debate.  He  was  to  open  with 
a  speech  of  one  hour,  and  close  with  another  of  half  an 
hour  after  Lincoln  had  replied  for  an  hour  and  a  half, 
and  at  the  next  meeting  these  conditions  were  to  be  re 
versed.  Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  mighty  assemblage 
could  possibly  hope  to  hear  the  speakers,  and  those  in 
wagons  at  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd,  finding  themselves 
at  a  disadvantage,  soon  abandoned  their  positions  and  edged 
their  way  into  the  throng.  Nevertheless,  there  was  very 
little  movement  in  the  audience,  and  there  was  virtually 
no  interruption.  Once  when  Douglas  sneer ingly  quoted  a 
part  of  Lincoln's  "  House-divided-against-itself "  speech, 
the  Republicans  burst  into  applause,  which  brought  an  angry 
response  from  the  unwary  orator;  and  when  Lincoln  be 
gan  by  reading  a  document,  some  one  in  the  crowd  shouted, 
"  Put  on  your  specs !  "  possibly  anticipating  a  smart  re 
ply.  But  Lincoln  was  in  no  joking  mood.  "  Yes,  sir," 
he  responded  gravely :  "  I  am  obliged  to  do  so.  I  am  no 
longer  a  young  man." 


i88  A  New  Nation 

Then  for  an  hour  and  a  half  he  held  that  mighty  audience 
by  the  sheer  force  of  his  personality  and  the  intense  in 
terest  of  his  theme.  Now  and  again  there  was  a  burst 
of  cheering,  but  the  speaker  made  no  effort  at  oratorical 
effect  and  employed  no  device  to  lighten  his  argument. 
Douglas  was  not  yet  as  serious  as  his  adversary,  for  he  had 
entered  light-heartedly  upon  the  contest,  and  did  not  im 
mediately  realize  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  had  under 
taken.  From  the  very  start  he  assumed  the  offensive  and 
continued  his  attack,  scarcely  deigning  to  notice  his  op 
ponent's  replies,  throughout  the  day.  Even  when  some  Re 
publican  enthusiasts  stormed  the  platform  at  the  close  o: 
that  eventful  evening  and  attempted  to  carry  Lincoln  of" 
upon  their  shoulders,  he  affected  to  believe  that  he  had  so 
completely  exhausted  his  adversary  as  to  necessitate  his  re 
moval  from  the  field.  One  week  later  he  began  to  take 
a  less  jaunty  view  of  the  situation. 

SECOND    DAY FREEPORT,    ILLINOIS 

On  Friday  August  27th,  Freeport  heard  what  was  per 
haps  the  most  momentous  of  the  debates. 

No  seats  of  any  sort  had  been  provided,  and  yet  a  throng 
even  greater  than  that  at  Ottawa  gathered  long  before  the 
appointed  time,  prepared  to  stand  during  the  whole  of  the 
three-hour  struggle.  Douglas  arrived  on  the  scene  shortly 
before  three  o'clock,  in  the  same  coach  and  four  which 
had  been  placed  at  his  disposal  earlier  in  the  day,  and  his 
appearance  was  evidently  designed  to  impress  and  awe  the 
country  folk.  Certainly  he  received  a  rousing  welcome ; 
but  the  cheers  had  scarcely  ceased  before  the  crowd  burst 
into  a  shout  of  laughter,  for  just  at  that  moment  an  old- 
fashioned  Conestoga  wagon,  drawn  by  six  draft-horses. 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          189 

lumbered  into  view,  and  on  one  of  the  high  seats  of  this 
clumsy  conveyance  sat  Lincoln,  accompanied  by  half  a  dozen 
farmers  in  their  working  clothes.  The  rear  nigh  horse 
was  guided  by  a  rider  with  a  single  rein,  and  the  harness 


ot  the  rest  of  the  team  consisted  of  old-fashioned  wide 
straps  and  chain  traces.  In  fact,  the  burlesque  on  Douglas's 
ceremonial  coach  had  been  made  as  complete  as  possible, 
and  the  good-natured  roar  which  greeted  it  demonstrated 
its  effect. 


190  A  New  Nation 

The  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Turner,  Republican  Moderator, 
promptly  called  the  meeting  to  order,  and  it  was  a  friendlv 
audience  to  which  he  introduced  his  candidate;  for  Free- 
port  was  almost  on  the  northern  border  of  Illinois,  when; 
anti-slavery  sentiment  prevailed  even  more  strongly  than 
at  Ottawa.  But  in  this  part  of  the  State  Lincoln  was  al 
most  a  stranger,  and  his  uncouth  appearance  and  slouchy 
bearing  were  not  offset  by  any  direct  knowledge  of  his 
professional  attainments.  On  this  occasion,  however,  ho 
speedily  dispelled  all  doubts  of  his  ability  by  advancing 
boldly  to  the  attack.  Reminding  his  auditors  that  Douglas 
had  seen  fit  to  cross-examine  him  at  their  last  meeting, 
he  announced  that  he  was  prepared  to  answer  the  seve:i 
questions  which  had  been  put  to  him  provided  his  adversary 
would  reply  to  questions  from  him  not  exceeding  the  same 
number.  "  I  give  him  an  opportunity  to  respond,"  he  an 
nounced,  and,  turning  to  Douglas,  paused  for  his  reply. 

In  an  instant  the  vast  audience  was  hushed.  Even  the 
fakirs  and  vendors  at  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  ceased 
plying  their  trades  and  strove  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
platform.  It  was  a  dramatic  moment,  and  an  unequaled 
opportunity  for  Douglas;  but  he  merely  shook  his  head  and 
smiled.  "  The  judge  remains  silent,"  continued  Lincoln. 
"  I  now  say  that  I  will  answer  his  interrogatories  whether  he 
answers  mine  or  not." 

No  more  effective  challenge  was  ever  uttered,  and  the 
audience,  quick  to  recognize  its  courage  and  fairness,  re 
sponded  in  a  fashion  that  must  have  disconcerted  and  nettled 
Lincoln's  cautious  adversary.  Certainly  Douglas  was  in 
no  amiable  mood  when  he  rose  to  make  reply,  and  the 
interruptions  of  the  audience  speedily  worked  him  into  a 
passion.  Again  and  again  he  assailed  his  hearers  as  "  Black 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          191 

Republicans,"  characterizing  their  questions  as  vulgar  and 
blackguard  interruptions,  shaking  his  fist  in  their  faces, 
and  defying  them  as  a  mob.  More  than  once  Mr.  Turner, 
the  Republican  Moderator,  was  drawn  into  the  fray  by  the 
speaker's  aggressive  tactics,  and  the  whole  meeting  was  oc 
casionally  on  the  verge  of  tumult.  Lincoln's  closing  ad 
dress,  however,  had  a  calming  effect,  and  when  his  time 
expired,  the  audience  quietly  dispersed,  to  spread  the  news 
throughout  the  countryside  that  this  unknown  lawyer  was 
actually  out-manceuvering  his  distinguished  adversary  and 
forcing  him  into  the  open,  beyond  reach  of  cover  or  pos 
sibility  of  retreat. 

THIRD    DAY JOXESBORO,    ILLINOIS 

Nearly  three  weeks  elapsed  before  the  combatants  re 
newed  their  struggle,  and  then  the  scene  of  battle  wras  shifted 
to  the  extreme  south  of  Illinois,  a  region  known  as  "  Egypt," 
controlled  by  the  Democracy,  but  favoring  Buchanan  rather 
than  Douglas.  Here  Lincoln  had  few  friends,  but  there 
was  a  great  chance  for  winning  them,  and  he  had  determined 
to  make  the  most  of  his  opportunity  by  carefully  preparing 
for  the  event. 

Jonesboro,  the  site  selected  for  this  contest,  was  then 
a  little  village  of  not  more  than  twelve  hundred  inhabitants. 
It  was  situated  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  railroad 
station,  which  was  known  as  Anna,  and  the  station,  said  to 
be  as  large  as  the  town,  was  reputedly  opposed  to  it  polit 
ically,  the  former  being  Republican  and  the  latter  Dem 
ocratic. 

About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  center  of  the  town 
lay  the  fair  grounds,  and  here  the  speakers'  platform  had 
been  erected,  and  some  attempt  made  at  providing  the  audi- 


192  A  New  Nation 

ence  with  seats.  The  accommodations,  however,  proved 
wholly  inadequate,  though  not  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
persons  attended,  and  most  of  them  were  obliged  to  stand 
during  the  whole  afternoon.  No  processions  or  demonstra 
tions  of  any  kind  preceded  the  meeting.  Douglas  drove  to 
the  fair  grounds  in  a  carriage,  accompanied  by  a  few  ad 
mirers,  and  Lincoln  walked  there  with  a  friend. 

Douglas  had  taunted  his  adversary  with  being  afraid  to 
appear  in  southern  Illinois,  and  prophesied  a  sorry  experi 
ence  for  him  when  he  was  "  trotted  down  to  Egypt."  This 
was  mere  pleasantry,  of  course,  for  at  the  first  indication  of 
hostility  toward  the  Republican  candidate,  his  adversary  in 
stantly  silenced  it  with  a  sharp  reproof,  and  the  meeting 
passed  off  quietly.  But  Douglas  was  not  in  good  form  dur 
ing  the  contest,  his  speech  being  poorly  delivered,  as  though 
he  were  indifferent  as  to  the  effect  he  produced,  while  Lin 
coln,  who  had  come  to  persuade,  devoted  his  best  power  to 
that  end.  Even  the  jeer  of  being  afraid  to  visit  this  hotbed 
of  Democracy  he  turned  to  his  advantage.  "  Why,  I  know 
this  people  better  than  Judge  Douglas  does!  "  he  exclaimed. 
"  I  was  raised  just  a  little  east  of  here.  I  am  a  part  of  this 
people." 

Certainly  a  part  of  that  people  was  Lincoln's  at  the  close 
of  that  autumn  day.  He  had  given  them  food  for  reflec 
tion.  He  was  making  the  whole  country  think. 

FOURTH    DAY CHARLESTON,    ILLINOIS 

Only  three  days  intervened  before  the  rivals  met  again, 
and  this  time  they  appeared  at  Charleston,  in  Coles  County, 
on  Saturday,  September  18,  1858. 

A  large  number  of  benches  had  been  prepared  for  the  audi 
ence,  but  the  crowd  which  surged  into  the  fair  grounds  as 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          193 

early  as  one  o'clock  numbered  fully  five  thousand  and  far 
exceeded  the  accommodations,  and  again  most  of  the  audi 
tors  stood  while  Lincoln  and  Douglas  closed  with  each  other 
for  the  fourth  time.  Not  all  of  those  who  listened  with 
rapt  attention  to  the  earnest  speakers,  however,  were  directly 
concerned  in  the  contest,  for  the  whole  county  was  beginning 
to  take  an  interest  in  it,  and  a  large  delegation  of  men, 
wromen,  and  children  had  arrived  during  the  morning  from 
Indiana  in  farm-wagons,  carriages,  and  on  horseback,  and 
the  number  of  women  in  attendance  was  specially  noticeable. 
Indeed,  the  pilgrimage  of  all  the  countryside  to  this  inaccessi 
ble  town,  miles  away  from  a  railroad,  was  one  of  the  most 
significant  features  of  this  remarkable  campaign,  and  one  of 
those  who  was  present  comments  upon  the  "  hot  feverish 
flush  "  which  characterized  the  interest  of  the  audience. 

Lincoln  had  the  opening  speech,  and  again  he  lost  no  time 
in  advancing  to  the  attack.  In  fact,  Douglas  was  now 
clearly  on  the  defensive,  and  in  this  position  he  was  plainly  ill 
at  ease.  For  once  at  least  his  air  of  confidence  and  supe 
riority  completely  disappeared,  and  his  supporters  were 
sorely  disappointed  at  his  showing. 

FIFTH    DAY GALESBURG,    ILLINOIS 

Election  day  was  almost  in  sight,  and  the  campaign  was  at 
its  height,  before  the  rivals  met  again.  Meanwhile  'the 
Republicans  had  been  gaining  confidence  and  courage,  for 
cing  their  opponents  to  fight  as  they  had  not  fought  for  years, 
and  both  sides  strained  every  nerve  to  make  the  joint  meet 
ing  at  Galesburg,  scheduled  for  Thursday,  October  7,  a 
memorable  event.  Galesburg  itself  began  preparing  for  the 
fray  weeks  in  advance,  for  accounts  of  the  other  meetings 
showed  that  a  supreme  effort  would  have  to  be  made  to  sur- 

33 


194  A  New  Nation 

pass  the  reception  accorded  by  less  important  centers,  and 
the  citizens  rose  to  the  occasion. 

Thus  far  there  had  been  little  or  no  effort  at  any  of  the 
joint  debates  to  organize  the  processions  upon  military  lines 
or  to  make  any  great  display  of  flags  or  banners.  But  now 
the  Republicans  had  formed  marching  clubs  all  over  the 
State,  generally  known  as  the  "  Wide-awakes,"  uniformed 
with  a  distinctive  cap  and  cape,  and  these  companies  were  the 
feature  of  the  day  at  Galesburg.  The  Democrats,  whose 
electioneering  devices  had  at  first  encountered  no  competi 
tion,  were  now  hard  pressed  to  match  their  rivals,  and  their 
banners  acclaiming  "  Douglas  the  Little  Giant  "  and  "  The 
Constitution  as  it  is  "  were  met  by  others  celebrating  "  Abe 
the  Giant-Killer  "  and  "  The  Constitution  as  it  ought  to  be," 
while  similar  placards  and  mottos  challenged  and  answered 
each  other  on  every  side  as  the  rival  organizations  moved 
past  each  other,  winding  through  the  streets  with  defiant 
shouts  and  jeers,  but  no  clash  save  that  of  the  bands. 

All  this  time  more  and  more  people  were  pouring  into 
the  town,  and  by  half-past  two  fully  fifteen  thousand  persons 
were  massed  on  the  college  campus.  Again,  as  at  Ottawa,  a 
line  of  farm-wagons  fringed  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd; 
but  this  time  every  available  tree  and  roof-top  was  occupied 
as  well  as  the  space  before  the  platform. 

Neither  speaker  any  longer  cared  for  applause.  Every 
moment  had  become  precious  for  attack  or  defense,  and 
Douglas  protested  that  he  desired  to  be  heard  rather  than 
cheered.  There  was  now  no  flippancy  or  arrogancy  about 
the  man.  He  was  in  deadly  earnest,  and  when  aroused, 
there  was  no  more  formidable  antagonist  in  the  United 
States  than  he. 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  temper  of  the  audience  when 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          195 

Douglas  made  his  closing  speech.  When  he  charged  that 
Lincoln  included  the  negro  in  that  part  of  the  Declaration 
which  asserts  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  the  crowd 
shouted,  "  We  believe  it !  "  When  he  quoted  Lincoln's 
statement  that  slavery  was  a  crime,  they  answered  "  He's 
right !  "  When  he  asserted  that  Love  joy  stood  pledged 
against  any  more  slave  States,  the  response  was  ''Right! 
So  do  we !  "  And  when  he  arraigned  his  adversary  on  the 
same  charge,  his  hearers  cheered  for  Lincoln. 

In  the  absence  of  an  authoritative  decision,  neither  candi 
date  can  be  said  to  have  been  the  victor  at  any  of  the  debates, 
but  all  the  external  evidence  is  that  at  Galesburg  Lincoln  car 
ried  the  day. 

SIXTH    DAY QUINCY,    ILLINOIS 

In  1858,  Quincy,  the  terminus  of  the  Chicago,  Burling 
ton  &  Quincy  Railroad,  was  a  town  of  about  fourteen  thou 
sand  inhabitants,  and  its  transportation  facilities,  both  by 
land  and  water,  made  it  one  of  the  most  important  business 
centers  of  Illinois.  Here  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the 
rival  candidates  would  meet  with  a  great  reception,  and  the 
local  newspapers  published  full  details  of  the  preparations  of 
both  parties  in  honor  of  their  visit.  The  Republicans  were 
nrst  in  the  field,  and  completed  their  arrangements  by  the 
nth  of  October,  but  the  Democrats  were  only  a  day  behind 
them,  and  their  program  was  perhaps  the  more  elaborate. 

The  debate  occurred  on  Wednesday,  October  13,  1858. 
Lincoln  arrived  by  rail  on  the  evening  of  the  I2th  in  the 
company  of  Carl  Schurz,  who  had  accidentally  met  him  on 
the  train,  and  a  reception  committee  bundled  him  into  a 
carriage  despite  his  protest  that  he  would  rather  "  foot  it 
to  Browning's,"  meaning  O.  H.  Browning's  house,  where  he 


196  A  New  Nation 

was  to  pass  the  night.  No  formal  reception  was,  how 
ever,  forced  upon  him,  and  he  was  soon  left  to  his  own 
devices  at  the  home  of  his  old  friend.  Douglas  was  less 
fortunate,  for  he  was  met  at  the  station  by  a  torchlight  pro 
cession  over  half  a  mile  long  and  escorted  with  music  and 
cheers  to  the  Democratic  headquarters  at  the  Quincy  House. 
Then  followed  a  noisy  night,  during  which  the  local  and 
visiting  political  clubs  fraternized,  celebrated,  and  planned 
for  the  great  to-morrow. 

Lincoln  opened  the  debate,  and  again  the  first  impression 
made  upon  the  audience  w-as  distinctly  unfavorable.  The 
splendid  carrying  quality  of  his  voice,  however,  enabled 
him  to  reach  the  very  outskirts  of  the  crowd  and 
he  soon  riveted  its  attention,  while  Douglas  writhed  and 
scowled  under  his  relentless  attack.  Indeed,  Douglas's 
nerves  were  fast  giving  way  under  the  tremendous  strain 
of  the  campaign;  his  face  had  grown  puffy,  his  voice  had 
become  so  husky  that  what  he  said  was  audible  only  to  those 
close  to  the  platform,  and  his  whole  appearance  had  decid 
edly  changed  for  the  worse  during  the  last  two  months. 
But  his  courage  did  not  falter,  and  he  returned  his  adver 
sary's  thrusts  with  almost  ferocious  zeal,  hoarsely  denoun 
cing  and  defying  him  with  all  the  power  of  a  skilled  forensic 
gladiator,  hard  pressed  and  fighting  desperately  against 
time.  Lincoln  fully  realized  his  advantage,  and  he  drove 
it  home  when  his  turn  came  to  close.  Yet  every  word  he 
uttered  \vas  addressed  to  a  far  wider  audience  than  that  in 
his  immediate  presence.  His  aim  was  to  make  the  people 
think,  and  all  his  personal  interest  in  the  campaign  was 
subservient  to  this  end.  To  quote  his  own  words,  the  run 
ning  fight  with  Douglas  had  become  "  the  successive  acts  of 
a  drama  enacted  not  merely  in  the  face  of  audiences  like 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates          197 

these,  but  in  the  face  of  the  nation  and  to  some  extent  in 
the  face  of  the  world." 

SEVENTH    DAY ALTON,    ILLINOIS 

Alton  virtually  held  a  Feast  of  Banners  on  that  clear 
Indian  summer  afternoon  when  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
closed  with  each  other  for  the  seventh  and  last  time. 

The  speakers  addressed  the  assemblage  from  a  platform 
erected  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  City  Hall,  and  here 
a  few  thousand  persons  had  gathered,  many  of  whom  had 
journeyed  from  St.  Louis  on  the  steamers  Baltimore  and 
White  Cloud  which  had  arrived  during  the  day. 

Douglas  had  the  opening  and  closing  word,  and  for  the 
first  time  during  the  contest  he  indulged  in  no  personalities, 
but  devoted  himself  to  argument,  inveighing  only  against 
the  Buchanan  administration,  which  he  bitterly  attacked, 
to  the  delight  of  his  Republican  auditors.  Indeed,  when 
Lincoln  rose  to  reply,  informally  heralded  by  an  enthusias 
tic  Democrat,  who  defiantly  shouted,  "  Now  let  old  Long 
Legs  come  out !  "  he  "  came  out  "  with  such  humorous  refer- 
erences  to  the  Democratic  feud  that  the  audience,  largely 
composed  of  Douglas  men,  was  plainly  disconcerted,  and 
not  a  little  dismayed.  It  was  only  for  a  moment,  however, 
that  Lincoln  permitted  himself  to  be  diverted  from  serious 
discussion  of  the  issues.  He  had  before  him  a  large  body 
of  Democratic  voters,  and  to  them  he  addressed  himself 
with  unanswerable  logic  and  great  tact. 

Douglas  presented  a  really  pitiable  appearance,  for  he 
was  utterly  worn  out  and  evidently  at  the  point  of  collapse. 
His  voice,  which  had  been  in  poor  condition  at  Ouincy,  was, 
now  almost  gone,  and,  to  quote  one  of  his  hearers,  "  every 
tone  came  forth  enveloped  in  an  echo.  You  heard  the 


198  A  New  Nation 

voice,  but  caught  no  meaning."  Notwithstanding  this,  IK 
struggled  bravely  to  hold  the  attention  of  his  auditors,  am 
his  closing  words  were  an  appeal  for  his  favorite  "  Popular 
Sovereignty "  theory,  which  Lincoln  had  stripped  of  its 
sophistical  veneer  until,  as  he  said,  it  had  as  little  substance 
as  the  soup  which  was  made  by  boiling  the  shadow  of  a 
pigeon  that  had  been  starved  to  death. 

Thus  ended  the  momentous  contest  which  resulted  in  an 
unprecedented  Republican  vote  and  a  clear  popular  major 
ity  for  Lincoln;  the  election  of  Douglas  to  the  Senate  by 
the  Legislature,  where  the  votes  of  his  adherents,  based  on 
an  obsolete  census,  gave  them  the  control;  the  nomination 
of  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency,  and  the  disruption  of  the 
Democratic  party.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  as  one  of  the 
keenest  students  of  our  political  history  has  written,  "  The 
debate  was  not  a  mere  episode  in  American  politics.  It 
marked  an  era." 


A  DOUGLAS  ARGUMENT 
BY  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS 

Lincoln  now  takes  his  stand  and  proclaims  his  Abolition 
doctrines.  Let  me  read  a  part  of  them.  In  his  speech  at 
Springfield  to  the  Convention,  which  nominated  him  for 
the  Senate,  he  said : 

"  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have 
been  reached  and  passed.  '  A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure 
permanently  half  Slave  and  half  Free.  I  do  not  expect  the 
Union  to  be  dissolved  —  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall 
—  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  be 
come  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents 
of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it 
where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forzvard  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States 
—  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 

I  am  delighted  to  hear  you  Black  Republicans  say  "  good." 
I  have  no  doubt  that  doctrine  expresses  your  sentiments,  and 
I  will  prove  to  you  now,  if  you  will  listen  to  me,  that  it  is 
revolutionary  and  destructive  of  the  existence  of  this  Gov 
ernment.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  the  extract  from  which  I  have 
read,  says  that  this  Government  cannot  endure  permanently 
in  the  same  condition  in  which  it  was  made  by  its  framers 

199 


2OO  A  New  Nation 

—  divided  into  free  and  slave  States.  He  says  that  it  has 
existed  for  about  seventy  years  thus  divided,  and  yet  ho 
tells  you  that  it  cannot  endure  permanently  on  the  same 
principles  and  in  the  same  relative  condition  in  which  our 
fathers  made  it.  Why  can  it  not  exist  divided  into  free  and 
slave  States?  Washington,  Jefferson,  Franklin,  Madison, 
Hamilton,  Jay,  and  the  great  men  of  that  day,  made  this 
Government  divided  into  free  States  and  slave  States,  and 
left  each  State  perfectly  free  to  do  as  it  pleased  on  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery.  Why  can  it  not  exist  on  the  same  principles 
on  which  our  fathers  made  it  ?  They  knew  when  they 
framed  the  Constitution  that  in  a  country  as  wide  and  broad 
as  this,  with  such  a  variety  of  climate,  production  and  inter 
est,  the  people  necessarily  required  different  laws  and  in 
stitutions  in  different  localities.  They  knew  that  the  laws 
and  regulations  which  would  suit  the  granite  hills  of  New 
Hampshire  would  be  unsuited  to  the  rice  plantations  of 
South  Carolina,  and  they,  therefore,  provided  that  eacli 
State  should  retain  its  own  Legislature  and  its  own  sover 
eignty,  with  the  full  and  complete  power  to  do  as  it  pleased 
within  its  own  limits,  in  all  that  was  local  and  not  national. 
One  of  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States,  was  the  right  to 
regulate  the  relations  between  Master  and  Servant,  on  the 
slavery  question.  At  the  time  the  Constitution  was  framed, 
there  were  thirteen  States  in  the  Union,  twelve  of  which 
were  slaveholding  States  and  one  a  free  State.  Suppose  this 
doctrine  of  uniformity  preached  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  that  the 
States  should  all  be  free  or  all  be  slave  had  prevailed,  and 
what  would  have  been  the  result?  Of  course,  the  twelve 
slaveholding  States  would  have  overruled  the  one  free  State, 
and  slavery  would  have  been  fastened  by  a  Constitutional 


A  Douglas  Argument  201 

provision  on  every  inch  of  the  American  Republic,  instead 
of  being  left  as  our  fathers  wisely  left  it,  to  each  State  to 
decide  for  itself.  Here  I  assert  that  uniformity  in  the  local 
laws  and  institutions  of  the  different  States  is  neither  possi 
ble  nor  desirable.  If  uniformity  had  been  adopted  when  the 
Government  was  established,  it  must  inevitably  have  been 
the  uniformity  of  slavery  everywhere,  or  else  the  uniformity 
of  negro  citizenship  and  negro  equality  everywhere. 

\Ye  are  told  by  Lincoln  that  he  is  utterly  opposed  to  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  and  will  not  submit  to  it,  for  the  reason 
that  he  says  it  deprives  the  negro  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  citizenship.  That  is  the  first  and  main  reason  which  he 
assigns  for  his  warfare  on  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  and  its  decision.  I  ask  you,  are  you  in  favor  of  con 
ferring  upon  the  negro  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizen 
ship  ?  Do  you  desire  to  strike  out  of  our  State  Constitution 
that  clause  which  keeps  slaves  and  free  negroes  out  of  the 
State,  and  allow  the  free  negroes  to  flow  in,  and  cover  your 
prairies  with  black  settlements?  Do  you  desire  to  turn  this 
beautiful  State  into  a  free  negro  colony,  in  order  that  when 
Missouri  abolishes  slavery  she  can  send  one  hundred  thou 
sand  emancipated  slaves  into  Illinois,  to  become  citizens  and 
voters,  on  an  equality  with  yourselves?  If  you  desire  negro 
citizenship,  if  you  desire  to  allow  them  to  come  into  the 
State  and  settle  with  the  white  man,  if  you  desire  them  to 
vote  on  an  equality  with  yourselves,  and  to  make  them  eligi 
ble  to  office,  to  serve  on  juries,  and  to  adjudge  your  rights, 
then  support  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  Black  Republican  party, 
who  are  in  favor  of  the  citizenship  of  the  negro. 
For  one,  I  am  opposed  to  negro  citizenship  in  any  and  every 
form.  I  believe  this  Government  was  made  on  the  white 


202  A  New  Nation 

basis.  I  believe  it  was  made  by  white  men,  for  the  benefit 
of  white  men  and  their  posterity  forever,  and  I  am  in 
favor  of  confining  citizenship  to  white  men,  men  of  Euro 
pean  birth  and  descent,  instead  of  conferring  it  upon  negroes, 
Indians,  and  other  inferior  races. 


THE  AUTHOR  OF  "  UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN  " 
BY  RICHARD  BURTON 

In  any  brief  sketch  of  the  personality  and  career  of 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  it  is  proper  to  regard  her 
chiefly  as  the  creator  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  a  novel 
which  had  its  share  in  changing  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  which,  as  Emerson  has  it,  "  encircled  the 
globe,  and  was  the  only  book  that  found  readers  in  the  par 
lor,  the  nursery,  and  the  kitchen  of  every  household." 

Harriet  Beecher  came  of  a  most  distinguished  American 
family,  Lyman  Beecher's  name  speaking  for  itself,  while 
his  first  wife,  Rosanna  Foote,  Harriet's  mother,  was  a  re 
markable  woman,  of  stock  than  which  Connecticut  can 
boast  no  better.  That  a  girl  thus  born  should  have  had  a 
predisposition  to  books  and,  even  more,  to  the  things  of  the 
spirit  was,  one  might  say,  foreordained,  if  there  is  aught 
in  ancestry.  Her  home  nurture  and  her  educational  ad 
vantages  were  such  as  to  fit  out  a  future  writer  of  intense 
moral  earnestness.  Yet  with  these  distinctly  superior  and 
cultivated  antecedents  went  the  New  England  plainness, 
the  Puritan  simplicity,  even  a  touch  of  Spartan  deprivation. 
Lyman  Beecher  became  a  famous  man,  a  shining  light  of 
the  American  pulpit ;  but  he  was  a  very  poor  and  obscure 
one  in  1811,  when  in  the  flower  month  of  June,  and  in  the 
beautiful  old  Connecticut  hill-town  of  Litchfield,  his  sixth 
child,  Harriet,  was  born. 

The  little  daughter  early  showed  her  bookishness,  and  at 

203 


204 


A  New  Nation 


the  age  of  six  was 
finding  delight  in  the 
"  Arabian  Nights." 
At  ten  she  was  fasci 
nated  with  the  more 
often  dreaded  task  of 
theme-writing,  and  at 
twelve  she  produced 
a  paper  with  the  fol 
lowing  title  :  "  Can  the 
Immortality  of  the 
Soul  be  Proved  by  the 
Light  of  Nature?  "• 
a  thesis  gravely  an 
swered  in  the  nega 
tive.  Her 
was  obtained 
Litchfield  Academy, 
and  then  at  her  sister 
Catherine's  noted  school  at  Hartford,  where,  at  thirteen,  we 
find  her  turning  Ovid  into  English  verse.  Lyman  Beecher 's 
removal  to  Boston  in  1826,  ostensibly  to  combat  the  new 
heresy  of  Unitarianism,  had  the  incidental  advantage  of 
offering  to  his  family  a  wider  and  richer  social  life;  and  the 
same  is  true  of  the  new  experiences  which  came  a  few  years 
later  when  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  Lane  Semi 
nary  near  Cincinnati,  in  what  then  seemed  the  very  West. 
Harriet  taught  for  a  while  in  the  seminary  in  Cincinnati  of 
which  Catherine,  who  had  moved  thither  with  her  kith 
and  kin,  was  the  head.  Playful  fancy,  quick  sensibility, 
keen  intelligence,  and,  underlying  all,  fullness  of  religious 
experience,  characterized  Harriet  Beecher,  when,  in  1836, 


-8 

schooling 
at  .  the 


Harriet   Beecher  Stowe,  1888. 


Author  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"       205 

at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  she  was  married  to  Professor 
Calvin  Stowe,  professor  of  Biblical  Theology  in  the  Lane 
Seminary.  Mrs.  Stowe  was  at  that  period  of  her  life,  and 
for  years  thereafter,  a  woman  of  delicate  health,  reminding 
one,  indeed,  of  Mrs.  Browning  in  smallness  and  fragility. 

Two  years  before  she  had  won  a  literary  prize  of  fifty 
dollars,  which  turned  her  thought  toward  writing  as  a  pos 
sible  work.  This  tentative  effort,  a  tale  called  "  Uncle 
Lot  "  (a  half  prophecy  in  title),  induced  the  embryo  writer 
to  devote  her  rather  scant  leisure  time  thereafter  to  her  pen. 
Gradually,  too,  the  great  theme  which  was  later  to  enlist 
all  the  sympathy  of  her  woman's  soul  was  suggested  by 
local  happenings.  Antislavery  agitations  in  Cincinnati  dur 
ing  these  years  were  stirring,  and  at  times  even  spectacular. 
\Ye  get  in  letters  a  vivid  picture  of  the  mobbing  of  a  news 
paper  office  \vhen  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  the  editor  of 
The  Journal,  and,  with  pistols  in  his  pocket,  fulminated 
against  slavery.  In  1839  a  colored  domestic  was  taken  into 
the  family,  and  it  wras  found  necessary  to  spirit  her  away 
some  miles  into  the  country,  in  order  to  prevent  her  re 
capture  by  her  former  Southern  owner.  But  even  when 
health  permitted,  home  duties  sadly  interfered  w-ith  literary 
work,  of  which  little  was  accomplished.  Yet  there  was 
small  doubt  in  the  Stowe  household  that  she  was  called  to 
literature,  and  when,  in  1849,  ner  husband  accepted  a  pro 
fessorship  in  Bowdoin  College,  Maine,  and  the  family  re 
moved  to  New  England,  Mrs.  Stowe  knew  herself  to  be 
ripe  to  write  the  epic  of  the  slave.  In  1850  she  took  a  burn 
ing  interest  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  when  the  sug 
gestion  came  from  her  brother's  wife,  Airs.  Edward  Beecher. 
to  make  a  story  on  slavery,  she  was  ready  for  the  task.  It 
was  a  time  of  moment  to  the  world  when,  in  the  little 


206  A  New  Nation 

Brunswick  parlor,  the  young  wife  and  mother,  after  read 
ing  the  letter,  crushed  it  in  her  hand,  rose  from  her  chair, 
and  exclaimed  :  "  I  will  write  something.  I  will  if  I  live!  " 
Never  was  fiction  born  more  directly  and  honestly  of  ethical 
interest  and  indignation.  It  was,  as  her  son  says,  the  crv 
of  a  woman's  heart,  not  of  her  head  at  all.  The  super- 
eminent  merits,  the  artistic  defects,  of  the  work  are  thus  ex 
plained.  There  was  behind  it  an  American  mother  sensi 
tive  to  liberty,  with  memories  of  Bunker  Hill  and  Concord 
in  her  mind,  who  had  loved  and  lost  children  of  her  own, 
and  who  came  of  a  stock  dedicated  by  principle  and  prac 
tice  to  the  pursuit  of  righteousness. 

Thus  instigated  by  her  kinsfolk  to  write  on  a  subject  he: 
soul  was  full  of,  an  additional  incentive  came  in  the  shape 
of  a  letter  from  Dr.  Gamaliel  Bailey,  editor  of  the  Wash 
ington  National  Era,  requesting  her  to  contribute  something 
to  its  columns.  This  periodical  was  in  those  days  of  much 
literary  merit,  Whittier  being  a  corresponding  editor,  and 
Mrs.  Southworth,  Alice  and  Phcebe  Gary,  and  Grace  Green- 
wood,  among  its  contributors.  Mrs.  Stowe  began  upon  tin- 
story,  writing  first  the  scene  on  the  Legree  plantation  where 
Uncle  Tom  is  so  brutally  misused.  She  then  penned  the 
opening  chapters,  and  sent  them  to  Dr.  Bailey,  writing  in 
stalment  after  instalment  at  Brunswick,  as  the  successive 
parts  appeared  —  a  dangerous  method  of  procedure,  but  in 
this  case  not  seeming  to  injure  the  quality  or  power  of  the 
tale.  The  story  was  published  serially  from  June,  1851, 
to  April,  1852.  The  account  of  its  instant  and  immense 
success  reads  almost  like  a  fairytale.  The  shy,  modest 
wife  of  the  country  professor  awoke,  like  Byron,  to  find 
herself  famous:  the  days  of  poverty  were  over;  in  four 
months  her  royalties  were  ten  thousand  dollars;  within  a 


Author  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"      207 

year  three  hundred  thousand  copies  were  sold  in  the 
United  States  alone,  while  in  England  forty  editions  ap 
peared  within  the  same  time.  Thus  was  the  most  widely 
sought  book  of  modern  times,  within  the  domain  of  lit 
erature,  started  on  its  course  of  unprecedented  popularity. 
It  was  dramatized  the  same  year  of  its  publication,  and 
the  foreign  translations  also  began  at  once,  extending  to 
twenty  lands,  beginning  with  France.  Nor  w^as  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin  "  merely  a  popular  success.  Letters  received 
by  the  author  from  the  leading  writers  of  America  and 
England  added  welcome  critical  appreciation.  One  or  two 
such  may  be  cited.  Longfellow  wrote :  "  I  congratulate 


House  at  Brunswick,  Maine,  where  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  "  was  written. 


you  most  cordially  upon  the  immense  success  and  influence 
of  '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.'  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs 
recorded  in  literary  history,  to  say  nothing  of  the  higher 
triumph  of  its  moral  effect."  Needless  to  say  that  the 


208  A  New  Nation 

effect  of  the  story  upon  public  thought  both  here  and 
abroad  was  electric;  the  air  was  surcharged  with  feeling, 
and  ready  to  become  impassioned.  Call  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin  "  special  pleading  or  no,  as  we  will,  after  its  read 
ing  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  felt  to  be  a  monstrous, 
an  impossible  thing. 

At  the  age  of  forty-one,  then,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 
found  herself  a  writer  of  transatlantic  reputation,  whose 
every  future  book  would  be  an  event  in  the  literary  world. 
Her  first  novel  was  written  at  forty,  when  she  was  a  ma 
ture  woman,  acquainted  with  grief,  and  had  lived  widely 
and  well  in  the  best  sense.  It  may  be  recalled  that  George 
Eliot  (between  whom  and  Mrs.  Stowe  a  sincere  friend 
ship  was  destined  to  spring  up)  wrote  her  "  Scenes  of 
Clerical  Life "  at  thirty-seven  —  another  example  of  a 
comparatively  late  turning  to  fiction  by  a  writer  of  power. 
Henceforth  Mrs.  Stowe's  experiences  were  to  be  broader, 
richer,  more  varied.  In  1852  she  went  to  Europe  for 
the  first  of  her  three  foreign  trips,  which  extended  her 
horizon  in  all  ways,  and  brought  her  precious  friends 
among  the  chosen  of  England  and  elsewhere.  Her  travel 
was  almost  a  royal  progress  in  respect  to  the  attention 
paid  her  by  the  populace,  while  affectionate  ties  were  formed 
with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  Charles  Kings- 
ley,  Lady  Byron,  John  Ruskin,  George  Eliot,  the  Brown 
ings,  and  many  more.  Throughout  her  wanderings,  and 
in  her  contact  with  all  classes  in  her  own  country,  Mrs. 
Stowe  remained  what  she  always  was  —  the  simple,  un 
pretending  American  woman,  who  regarded  her  gift  as  a 
trust  from  Gocl,  and  was  weighed  down  with  a  sense  of  its 
responsibility.  Naturally  of  a  retiring,  even  shrinking,  dis 
position,  she  steadily  preferred  the  quiet  of  the  home-circle 


Author  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"       209 

to  all  else  the  world  could  offer.  A  letter  in  which  she 
describes  her  personal  appearance  is  an  index  of  her  modest 
estimate  of  herself  in  general:  "I  am  a  little  bit  of  a 
woman,  rather  more  than  forty,  as  withered  and  dry  as  a 
pinch  of  snuff;  never  very  well  worth  looking  at  in  my  best 
days,  and  now  a  decidedly  used-up  article." 


BRACELET  MADE  IN    IMITATION   OF  THE  MANACLES  OF  A    SLAVE. 

Presented  to  Mrs.  Stowe  by  Harriet  Elizabeth  Georgiana,  second 
Duchess  of  Sutherland,  in  1853,  at  a  reception  at  Stafford  House. 
London.  The  links  bear,  with  certain  antislavery  dates,  the  following 
inscription:  "562848,  March  19,  1853"  (the  date  and  number  of 
signatures  to  the  address  by  the  women  of  England  to  the  women 
of  America).  The  sheets  of  this  address  were  sent  to  all  the  Eng 
lish  colonies,  and  wherever  British  residents  could  be  found.  It 
was  presented  to  Mrs.  Stowe  by  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  and  is 
now  bound  in  twenty-four  large  volumes. 


INDEX 


American   Sailors,  47-62. 

Barbary  States,  70-79. 
Buccaneers,  72-76. 

Calhoun,  148-150,  155-156. 
California,  106-129. 
Clay,  Henry,  152,  153,  154,  155,  159. 
Clermont,  The,  95-105. 
Constitution,   The,  47,   53,  55,   58- 

60,  75. 
Constitution  of  the  U.  S.,  148-159. 

Dartmouth  College,  144. 
Decatur,  Capt,  49,   50,  75,  77,   79. 
Douglass,  Frederick,   181-186. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  186-198,  199- 
202. 

France,  25-29,  43-46,  70. 
Fratince's  Tavern,  22. 
Fulton,  Robert,  95-105. 

Georgetown,  Old,  86-94. 
Grandpre,  Louis,  30-42. 
Great  Britain,  43-46,  62,  67,  82. 
Guerricre,  58. 

Inauguration   of   Washington,    18- 

24. 

Indians,  102-109,  136,  167. 
Jackson,  Andrew,  62,  67. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  26,  28. 

Key,  Francis  Scott,  68-71. 
Kidd,  Capt.,  80,  83-85. 

Lake  Champlain,  Battle  of,  50,  51, 

52. 
Lincoln,  Early  Life  of,  166-180. 


London  Times,  57,  61. 

Louisiana   Purchase,  25-29,  30-42, 

Madison,  Dolly,  93-94. 
Madison,  James,  43-46. 
Marque,  Letters  of,  82. 
Missions,  106-121. 
Mississippi  River,  25-26. 
Morocco,  75. 
Mount  Vernon,  3-16. 
Monroe  Doctrine,  147. 
Monroe,  James,  27. 

Napoleon,  27-29. 

New  Orleans,  Battle  of,  62-67. 

New  York,   160-165. 

Osceola,  130. 

Philadelphia,  The,  75,  77,  79. 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy.  143. 
Pirates,  72-86. 
Privateering,  82. 

Slavery,  Escape  from,  181-186. 
Slavery,  199-202. 
Star-Spangled   Banner,  68-71. 
Steamboat,   95-100. 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  203-209. 

Thomson,  Charles,   19. 
Tripoli,  74,  75,  77. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  203-209. 

War  of  1812,  43,  47-61. 
Washington,  D.  C,  86-94. 
Washington.   George,   3-16.    18-24, 

92. 
Wasp,  The,  59. 


Lincoln-Douglas  Debates,  186,  198.       Webster,  Daniel,  138-147,  148-159. 


Livingston,  27-29. 


Whigs,  150,  152. 


211 


(6) 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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